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LOTUS LILIES AND COCONUTS— WAIKIKI 



LEGENDS 

of 

OLD HONOLULU 



(MYTHOLOGY) 



Collected and Translated from the Hawaiian 



W. D. WESTERVELT 

AUTHOR OF "legends OF GHOSTS AND GHOST-GODS, 
"legends OP VOLCANOES," "LIFE OF KAMEHAMEHA.'' 






s 

is 

is 




ELLIS PRESS, BOSTON, MASS., U.S.A. 

CONSTABLE & CO., LONDON, G.B, 

I916 



Copyright, 1915, by 
William Drake Westervelt 



Honolulu, T.H. ^^ tr"^ 

Second Edition V\j^ 

'^ \<\\^ 

Copyright, 1916, by tP^'^ 

William Drake Westervelt \ ^ 

Honolulu, T.H. 




BOSTON. U.S.A. 
PRESS OF GEO. H. ELLIS CO. 



LONDON 

CONSTABLE & CO., LTD. 

10 Orange St., Leicester Sq., W.C. 

1916 

NOV 29 1916 

©GI.A446G50 



FOREWORD 

The legends of a people are of interest to the 
scholar, the thinker, and the poet. 

The legends tell us of the struggles, the tri- 
umphs, and the wanderings of the people, of 
their thoughts, their aspirations; in short, they 
give us a twilight history of the race. 

As the geologist finds in the rocks the dim rec- 
ords of the beginnings of life on our planet, the 
first foreshadowings of the mighty forests that 
have since covered the lands, and of the count- 
less forms of animal life that have at last culmi- 
nated in Man, so does the historian discover in 
the legends of a people the dim traces of its 
origin and development till it comes out in the 
stronger light of the later day. 
>sj) So it is with the legends of the Hawaiians, or 
^ of the Polynesian race. We see them, very in- 
(3o distinctly, starting from some distant home in 
-3 Asia, finally reaching the Pacific Ocean, and then 
gradually spreading abroad over its islands till 
_^ they dominate a large portion of its extent. 
^ In bringing together this collection of Hawai- 
.^ ian legends, the author of this little book has 
* conferred a great favor upon all those residents 

7^ 



IV FOREWORD 

of Hawaii and of those visitors to its shores who 
may take an interest in its original inhabitants, 
once an exceedingly numerous people, but now 
a scattering remnant only. To that native race 
this little book will be at once a joy and a sorrow; 
to the heart of the haole, who has lived among 
them, known them intimately for thirty years 
or more (as has the writer of this Foreword), 
and learned to love them, this collection of the 
legends of old Honolulu brings a warm '^ Aloha!" 

Geo. H. Barton, 

Director, Teachers' School of Science, Boston, Mass, 

Formerly Professor of Geology 

at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 

June 4, iQiS- 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 



CHAPTER PAGE 

Introduction vii 

I. The Migration of the Hawaiians . . i 

II. Legendary Places in Honolulu ... 14 

III. The God of Pakaka Temple 23 

IV. Legend of the Bread-fruit Tree . . 28 
V. The Gods who found Water .... 37 

VL The Water of Life of Ka-ne .... 43 

VII. Mamala the Surf-rider 52 

VIII. A Shark punished at Waikiki .... 55 

IX. The Legendary Origin of Kapa ... 59 

X. Creation of Man 70 

XL The Chief with the Wonderful Ser- 
vants 75 

XII. The Great Dog Ku 82 

XIII. The Cannibal Dog-man 90 

XIV. The Canoe of the Dragon 97 

XV. The Wonderful Shell . 105 

XVI. The Ghost Dance on Punchbowl . . 112 

XVII. The Bird-man of Nuuanu Valley . . 121 

XVIII. The Owls of Honolulu 127 

XIX. The Two Fish from Tahiti 138 

XX. IwA, THE Notable Thief of Oahu . . 148 

XXI. PiKoi THE Rat-killer 157 

XXII. Kawelo . 173 

XXIII. '^ Chief Man-eater" ......... 189 

XXIV. Lepe-a-moa , , . 204 

XXV. Kamapuaa Legends ...... ■. . 246 

Appendix 

Polynesian Language 

Partial List of Hawaiian Terms Used 

Press Notices 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



Lotus Lilies and Coconuts Frontispiece 

OPPOSITE PAGE 

Young Honolulu and Leahi 8 

Honolulu Harbor i8 

Ulu or Breadfruit Trees 30 

Le Passage des Brisants 52 

Kara or Bark Cloth (piece of real tapa) .... 58 

KuKui OR Candle-nut Trees 82 

MoANALUA 94 

The Gnarled Koa 104 

Misty Falls 122 

NuuANU Pali 136 

Poi Pounder 144 

The Banyan (in "Songs of Hawaii'* called "The 

Grandfather Tree") 166 

A Wahine 178 

A Stone Altar beneath the Lahala Trees . . 188 

Hat and Mat Maker 204 

Haliewa and Waianae Mountains 220 

Kakuhihewa's Lands 228 

Wearing the Lei . 244 

In Kapiolani Park 252 

Rice Fields and Coconut Trees . 258 

Map of Oahu 278 

Some illustrations are from the author's own snapshots. 



INTRODUCTION 



The ancient Hawaiians were not inventive. 
They did not study new methods of house- 
building or farming. They did not seek new tools 
or new weapons. They could live comfortably 
as their ancestors lived. But they w^ere im- 
aginative and therefore told many a wonderful 
tale of gods and goblins and men. Some of 
these stories were centuries old, and were 
closely akin to legends told in Tahiti, Samoa, 
Fiji, New Zealand and many other islands of the 
Pacific Ocean. Most of them were of course 
limited to the locality from which they came. 
The Honolulu legends belong to this class al- 
most entirely, although a student of Polynesian 
mythology will find many traces of connecting 
links with the mythology of far distant islands. 

The legends of Old Honolulu have been com- 
piled from stories told by the old Hawaiians. 
Some of them came from those still living, but 
many have been found in the files of papers 
published from 1850 to 1870. 

The first alphabet for Hawaiians was pre- 
pared in 182 1. The Hawaiians were taught to 



vui INTRODUCTION 

read and write their histories and ancient stories 
as rapidly as possible. This was the result of 
the labors of the American missionaries. Some 
of the missionaries, notably Mr. Dibble, sent 
their pupils out to write down and preserve the 
old legends and traditions. Between thirty and 
forty years after the first lesson in the alphabet 
the Hawaiians were writing articles for papers 
published regularly in their own language — such 
as Ka Hae Hawaii (The Hawaiian Flag), Ke 
Kuokoa {The Independent), Ka Hoku Pakipika 
{The Star of the Pacific). These were followed 
by many papers down to the present time edited 
solely by Hawaiians. 

Careful research through these papers brings 
many stories of the past into the hands of stu- 
dents. It is chiefly in this way that these legends 
of Old Honolulu have been gathered together. 
This is the result of several years' work of note- 
taking and compilation. 

These legends belong of course to Honolulu 
people, and will be chiefly interesting to them 
and those who are acquainted with the city 
and the island of Oahu. It is hoped that the 
folk-lore lovers the world over will also enjoy 
comparing these tales with those of other lands. 

Sometimes these old stories have been touched 
up and added to by the Hawaiian story-teller 
who has had contact with foreign literature, and 



INTRODUCTION ix 

the reader may trace the influence of modern 
ideas; but this does not occur frequently. 

The legend of '* Chief Man-eater '' comes the 
nearest to historic times. Cannibalism was not 
a custom among the ancient Hawaiians. These 
are unquestionably sporadic cases handed down 
in legends. 

These legends have been printed in the follow- 
ing papers and magazines: The Friend, The Para- 
dise of the Pacific, The Mid-Pacific, Thrum's 
Hawaiian Annual, Historical Society Reports, 
The Advertiser and Star Bulletin, published in 
Honolulu. 

The Author. 



PRONUNCIATION 



*'A syllable in Hawaiian may consist of a single vowel, or 
a consonant united with a vowel or at most of a consonant 
and two vowels, never of more than one consonant. The ac- 
cent of five-sixths of the words is on the penult, and a few 
proper names accent the first syllable. 

In Hawaiian every syllable ends in a vowel and no syllable 
can have more than three letters, generally not more than 
two and a large number of syllables consist of single letters — 
vowels. Hence the vowel sounds greatly predominate over 
the consonant. The language may therefore appear monot- 
onous to one unacquainted with its force. 

In Hawaiian there is a great lack of generic terms, as is the 
case with all uncultivated languages. No people have use 
for generic terms until they begin to reason and the language 
shows that they were better warriors and poets than philos- 
ophers and statesmen. Their language, however, richly 
abounds in specific names and epithets. 

The general rule, then, is that the accent falls on the penult; 
but there are many exceptions and some words which look 
the same to the eye take on entirely different meanings by 
different tones, accents, or inflections. 

The study of these kaaos or legends would demonstrate that 
the Hawaiians possessed a language not only adapted to their 
former necessities but capable of being used in introducing 
the arts of civilized society and especially of pure morals, of 
law, and the religion of the Bible." 

The above quotations are from Lorrin Andrew's Dictionary of the Ha- 
waiian Language, containing some 15,500 Hawaiian words, printed in 
Honolulu in 1865. 

'a is sounded as in father 
e '' '' " '' they 
i " " " " marme 
'' " " " note 

li ii a j.^Yq or as 00 in moon 
ai when sounded as a diphthong resem- 
bles English ay 
au when sounded as a diphthong resem- 
bles ou as in loud 



Hawaiian vowels < 



The consonants are h, k, I, m, w, p, and w. No distinction 
is made between k and / or / and r, and w sounds like v between 
the penult and final syllable of a word. 




I 

THE MIGRATION OF THE HAWAHANS 

HE fountain source of the Mississippi has 
been discovered and rediscovered. The 
origin of the Polynesian race has been 
a subject for discovery and rediscovery. The 
older theory of Malay origin as set forth in the 
earlier encyclopaedias is now recognized as un- 
tenable. The Malays followed the Polynesians 
rather than preceded them. The comparative 
study of Polynesian legends leads almost irre- 
sistibly to the conclusion that the Polynesians 
were Aryans, coming at least from India to 
Malasia and possibly coming from Arabia, as 
Fornander of Hawaii so earnestly argues. It is 
now accepted that the Polynesians did not origi- 
nate from Malay parentage, and that they did 
occupy for an indefinite period the region around 
the Sunda Straits from Java to the Molucca 
Islands, and also that the greater portion of the 
Polynesians was driven out from this region and 
scattered over the Pacific in the early part of the 
Christian Era. The legends that cluster around 
Wakea have greatly aided in making plain some 



2 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

things concerning the disposition of the Polyne- 
sians. By sifting the legends of Hawaii-loa we 
learn how the great voyager becomes one of the 
first Vikings of the Pacific. His home at last is 
found to be Gilolo of the Molucca Islands. From 
the legends we become acquainted with Wakea 
(possibly meaning '^noonday," or ^^the white 
time'O and his wife Papa (earth), the most 
widely remembered of all the ancestors of the 
Polynesian race. Their names are found in the 
legends of the most prominent island groups, and 
the highest places are granted them among the 
demi-gods and sometimes among the chief deities. 
Their deeds belong to the most ancient times — 
the creation or discovery of the various islands of 
the Pacific world. Those who worshipped Wakea 
and Papa are found in such widely separated 
localities that it must be considered impossible 
for even a demi-god to have had so many homes. 
Atea, or Wakea, was one of the highest gods of 
the Marquesas Islands. Here his name means 
''light." The Marquesans evidently look back 
of all their present history and locate Atea in 
the ancient homeland. Vatea in the Society Isl- 
ands, Wakea in Hawaii and New Zealand, Makea, 
Vakea and Akea are phonetic variations of the 
one name when written down by the students 
who made a written form for words repeated 
from generation to generation by word of mouth 



THE MIGRATION OF THE HAW All AN S 3 

alone. Even under the name ^^Wakea'' this 
ancient chief is known in most widely separated 
islands. The only reasonable explanation for 
this widespread reference to Wakea is that he 
was an ancestor belonging in common to all the 
scattered Polynesians. It seems as if there 
must have been a period when Wakea was king 
or chief of a united people. He must have 
been of great ability and probably was the great 
king of the United Polynesians. If this were 
the fact it would naturally result that his memory 
would be carried wherever the dispersed race 
might go. 

In the myths and legends of the Hervey Isl- 
ands, Vatea is located near the beginning of 
their national existence. First of all the Her- 
vey Islanders place Te-ake-ia-roe (The root of 
all existence). Then there came upon the an- 
cient world Te Vaerua (The breath, or The 
life). Then came the god time — Te Manawa 
roa (The long ago). Then their creation legends 
locate Vari, a woman whose name means ^^the 
beginning/' a name curiously similar to the He- 
brew word "bara,'* ^Ho create,'* as in Gen. i. i. 
Her children were torn out of her breasts and 
given homes in the ancient mist-land, with which, 
without any preparation or introduction, Ha- 
waiki is confused in a part of the legend. It has 
been suggested that this Hawaiki is Savaii of the 



4 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

Samoan Islands, from which the Hervey Islands 
may have had thek origin in a migration of the 
Middle Ages. One of the children of Vari dwelt 
in *'a sacred tabu island'' and became the god of 
the fish. Another sought a home ^* where the red 
parrots' feathers were gathered" — the royal 
feathers for the high chiefs' garments. Another 
became the echo-god and lived in ^'the hollow 
gray rocks." Another as the god of the winds 
went far out '^on the deep ocean." Another, a 
girl, found a home, '^the silent land," with her 
mother. Wakea, or Vatea, the eldest of this 
family, remained in Ava-iki (Hawaii), the ances- 
tral home — ''the bright land of Vatea." Here 
he married Papa. This Ava-iki was to the Her- 
veyites of later generations the fiery volcanic 
under-world. When the long sea- voyages ceased 
after some centuries, the islanders realized that 
Ava-iki was very closely connected with their 
history. They had but a misty idea of far-off 
lands, and they did know of earthquakes and 
lava caves and volcanic fires — so they located 
Ava-iki as the secret world under their islands. 
This under-world with legendary inconsistency 
was located on the ocean's surface, when it be- 
came necessary to have their islands discovered 
by the descendants of Vatea. According to the 
Hervey legends, Vatea was the father of Lono and 
Kanaloa, two of the great gods of the Polynesians. 



THE MIGRATION OF THE H AW All AN S 5 

They were twins. Lono had three sons, whom 
he sent away. They sailed out through many 
heavens and from Ava-iki pulled up out of the 
deep ocean two of the Hervey Islands, The 
natives of the Hervey group supposed that the 
horizon around their group enclosed the world. 
Beyond this world line were heavens and heav- 
ens. A daring voyager by sailing through the 
sky-line would break out from this world into 
an unknown world or a heaven boimded by 
new horizons. Strangers ''broke through" from 
heaven, sometimes making use of the path of 
the sun. Thus about twenty-five generations 
ago Raa (possibly Laa, the Hawaiian) broke 
down the horizon's bars and established a line 
of kings in Raiatea. So also when Captain Cook 
came to the Hervey Islands the natives said: 
"Whence comes this strange thing? It has 
climbed up [come up forcibly] from the thin 
land, the home of Wakea." He had pierced the 
western heavens from which their ancestors 
had come. 

When the sons of Lono imexpectedly saw a 
speck of land far away over the sea, they cried 
out that here was a place created for them by 
their deified ancestors. As they came nearer 
they "pulled up'' the islands until they grew to 
be high mountains rising from the deep waters. 
In these mountains they found the lava caves 



6 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

and deep chasms which they always said ex- 
tended down under the seas back to Ava-iki. 
They made their caves a passageway for spirits 
to the fairy home of the dead, and therefore into 
certain chasms cast the bodies of the dead, that 
the spirit might more easily find the path to the 
under-world. 

Vatea was a descendant of ^^the long ago," 
according to the Hervey legend. Wakea of 
Hawaii was a son of Kahiko, "the ancient.'' 
Wakea's home is more definitely stated in the 
Hawaiian than in the Hervey legends. He 
lived in 0-Lolo-i-mehani, or The Red Lolo, a 
name confidently referred by Fornander in "The 
Polynesian Race" to Gilolo, the principal island 
of the Moluccas. The Red Lolo, as suggested 
by Fornander, would refer not alone to volcanic 
action and its decaying debris, but would fittingly 
designate the largest and most important island 
of the group. The fire bursting from many vol- 
canoes in the region of the Simda Straits was 
"royal" to the beholders, who felt that divine 
power was present in the mysterious red flames. 
Hence all the Polynesian tribes invested the 
red color with especial dignity as a mark of 
royalty and pre-eminence. It was on the ban- 
ners allowed only to chiefs when their boats 
sailed away to visit distant lands. It was the 
color of the war cloaks of chiefly warriors. In 



THE MIGRATION OF THE HAWAII ANS 7 

the recent days of the monarchy of Hawaii, the 
richest crimson was the only color allowed in 
upholstering the great throne room. Gilolo 
might worthily bear the name *^The Red Lolo" 
in Hawaiian story. Here Hawaii-loa, the first 
of the Polynesian Vikings, had his home. Here 
the Chieftainess Oupe, a Polynesian princess, 
dwelt. In 0-Lolo Wakea married the grand- 
daughter of Oupe, whose name was Papa. She 
is almost as widely known in legends as her hus- 
band. Papa was said to be a tabued descendant 
of Hawaii-loa and therefore superior in rank to 
Wakea. Papa is described as '^very fair and 
almost white.'' Her name means ^^ earth," and 
Wakea's name might mean '^noonday.'' This, 
with the many experiences through which they 
both passed, would lay the foundation for a very 
pretty sun-myth, but we cannot avoid the human 
aspect of the legends and give them both a more 
worthy position as ancestors of a scattered people. 
Kahiko, the ancient, is recorded as having had 
three sons, from whom descended the chiefs, the 
priests and the common people, — the husband- 
men, — almost a Shem, Ham and Japheth di- 
vision. Other legends, however, give Kahiko 
only two sons, the eldest, Wakea, having power 
both as chief and priest. All the legends unite 
in making Wakea the head of the class of 
chiefs. This would very readily explain the 



8 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

high place held by Wakea throughout Polyne- 
sia and also the jealous grasp upon genealogical 
records maintained by the royal families of the 
Pacific. 

Wakea and Papa are credited with being the 
creators of many island kingdoms of the Pacific. 
Sometimes the credit is given partly to a mis- 
chievous fisherman-god, Maui, after whom one of 
the Hawaiian Islands is named. One of the 
Hawaiian legends goes back to the creation or 
discovery of Hawaii and ascribes the creation of 
the world to Wakea and Papa. The two were liv- 
ing together in ''Po" — "^'darkness," or ^^ chaos.'' 
Papa brought into existence a gourd calabash in- 
cluding bowl and cover, with the pulp and seeds 
inside. Wakea threw the cover upward and it 
became heaven. From the pulp and seeds he 
made the sky and the sun and moon and stars. 
From the juice of the pulp he made the rain. 
The bowl he fashioned into the land and sea. 
Other legends limit the creative labors of Wakea 
to the Hawaiian group. With the aid of Papa 
he established a portion of the islands; then dis- 
cord entered the royal family and a separation 
was decided upon. The Hawaiian custom has 
always been for either chief or chiefess to ex- 
ercise the right to divorce and to contract the 
marriage ties. Wakea is said to have divorced 
Papa by spitting in her face, according to an an- 



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THE MIGRATION OF THE HAWAIIANS 9 

cient custom. Wakea selected a chieftainess 
named Hina, from whom the island Molokai 
(the leper island) received the name ^^Molokai- 
hina " — the ancient name of the island. Morotai 
was also an island lying near Gilolo in the Mo- 
lucca group, and might be the place from which 
Wakea secured his bride. Papa selected as her 
new husband a chief named Lua. The ancient 
name of Oahu (the island upon which Honolulu is 
located) was "Oahu-a-lua" (The Oahu of Lua). 
One of the Celebes Islands bears a name for one 
of its districts very similar to Oahu — ^^Ouadju.'' 
Papa seems to have been partially crazed by her 
divorce. She marries many husbands. She 
voyages back and forth between distant islands. 
In an ancient island, Tahiti, she bears children 
from whom the Tahitians claim descent. In 
the Celebes she and her people experience a fam- 
ine and she is compelled to send to 0-Lolo for 
food. In New Zealand legend she becomes the 
wife of Langi (Hawaiian Lani, or heaven), a union 
of^^earth'' and ^^heaven." They have six 
children. Four of these are the chief gods of 
ancient Hawaii: Ka-ne, ^^ light''; Ku, 'Hhe 
builder"; Lono, ^^ sound"; and Kanaloa. Two 
of the children are not named in Hawaiian an- 
nals, unless it might be that one, Tawhirri, 
should be represented in Kahili, the tall standard 
used for centuries as the insignia of very high 



lO LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

chief families. The other name, ^^ Haumia," 
might possibly be Haumea, a second name given 
to Papa in the legends. The Maoris of New Zea- 
land deify all of these six sons of Lani and Papa. 

Ka-ne was ^'father of forests." He was very 
strong. In ancient days the sky was not sep- 
arated from the earth. He Ufted up the heavens 
and pushed down the earth — and thus made 
space for all things to grow. It was while the 
sky rested its full weight upon the earth that 
the leaves started into life, but were flat and thin 
because there was no chance to become plump 
and full like the fruit which came later. Here 
is the foundation for another sun-myth of the 
Pacific, wherein it might be said light came and 
separating darkness from the earth brought 
life into the world. Light could well be 'Hhe 
father of forests." The second son was Tawhirri, 
''the father of winds and storms." A part of 
his name was ''matea," which might possibly 
be referred to Wakea. He dwelt in the skies 
with his father Lani. 

The third son was Lono, who was ''the father 
of all cultivated food." 

The fourth was Haumia, "the father of un- 
cultivated food" — such food as grew wild in the 
forests or among the herbs or in the midst of the 
edible sea-mosses. 

The fifth son was Kanaloa, "the father of all 



THE MIGRATION OF THE H AW All AN S ii 

reptiles and fishes," at first dwelling in Hawaiki 
on the land with all his descendants. 

The sixth son was Ku '^with the red face," 
*Hhe father of fierce or cruel men." Ku was 
easily made angry, and after a time waged war 
against his brothers and their followers. There 
was great destruction, but Ku could not win the 
victory alone. He was compelled to call upon 
Tawhirri, ''the father of winds and storms." 
Fierce men and fierce storms made it difficult 
for the remainder of the household to escape. 
The ''father of forests" bowed to the earth 
under the terrific force of hurricanes and torna- 
does. The "fathers of foods" buried themselves 
deep in the ground to escape destruction at the 
hands of cruel mankind and tempestuous nature. 
Then came the bitter conflict between the family 
of Kanaloa and their combined enemies. Cruel 
men were without pity in the blows dealt against 
their inferior kindred. At last the fish fled to 
the sea and sought safety in distant waters, 
finding homes where the children of Ku did not 
care to follow. The reptiles fled inland to the 
secret recesses of the mountains and forests. 
There they have kept their wild savage life 
through the centuries even to the present day, 
as in Sumatra, Borneo, the Celebes, the Philip- 
pines and other sections of the region around 
the Sunda Straits. They are not now ocean 



12 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

lovers any more than in the ages past. They do 
not ''go down to the sea in ships." Neither do 
they love the coming of Dutch or Spanish or 
American civilization. They seem to have an 
hereditary dislike for strange and cruel men. 

The sea rovers became great wanderers, car- 
rying with them the name of ''Kanaloa" and 
planting it in almost all the Pacific islands to 
be worshipped as one of the supreme gods. 

How much these domestic troubles surround- 
ing the name of Papa may have had to do with 
an early migration of the Polynesians we do not 
know. It may be that while the household was 
engaged in war the Malays came from the 
north and with tornado power scattered the 
divided family, compelling swift flight to distant 
lands. It is now understood that the great dis- 
persion of the Polynesians came from the incur- 
sions of the powerful Malays during the second 
century of the Christian Era. Some of the 
Hawaiian and New Zealand legends imply that 
for a number of generations a part of the Poly- 
nesians remained in the old family home, Ha- 
waiki. The New Zealanders enter quite fully 
into the account of the troubles attending the 
coming of their ancestors from Hawaiki. They 
mention battles and domestic discords. They 
tell of the long journeys and wearisome efforts 
put forth until their ancestors find Northern 



THE MIGRATION OF THE H AW All AN S 13 

New Zealand, Ke-ao-tea-roa (The great white 
land). This was pulled up out of the sea for 
them by Maui with his wonderful fish-hook. 
This story of the magic fishing of the disobedient 
and mischievous Maui is common in Polynesia. 

After the discovery of New Zealand, boats 
were sent back to Hawaiki to induce large com- 
panies of colonists to leave the land of warfare 
and trouble and settle in rich lands bordering 
the beautiful bays of New Zealand. 

Like stories of discovery of new lands and 
return for friends adorn the legends of all Poly- 
nesia. Wakea's descendants were clannish and 
stood by each other in that great migration of 
the second century as well as in the better-re- 
membered journeys of later years. There seems 
to have been a continued migration of the Poly- 
nesians. Sometimes they were apparently fought 
off by the black race, as in Australia; sometimes 
they held their own for a time, keeping the black 
men inland, as in Fiji; and sometimes they struck 
out boldly for new lands, as when they sailed 
long distances to the Hawaiian and Easter Isl- 
ands. It is said that the purest forms of the 
Polynesian language, most harmonious with one 
another, were carried by the children of Wakea 
to the far distant islands of New Zealand, Hawaii 
and Easter Island. 



14 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

II 
LEGENDARY PLACES IN HONOLULU 



H^^^O-NO-LU-LU is a name made by the 

lln^ili ^^^^^ ^^ ^^^ ^^^ words "Hono'' and 
■ fAv%>?f « ^ lulu. ' ' Some say it means ' ^ Sheltered 
Hollow." The old Hawaiians say that *'Hono" 
means *' abundance'' and ^'lulu" means "calm," 
or "peace," or * ' abundance of peace." The navi- 
gator who gave the definition "Fair Haven'' was 
out of the way, inasmuch as the name does not be- 
long to a harbor, but to a district having "abim- 
dant calm," or "a pleasant slope of restful land." 
"Honolulu" was probably a name given to a 
very rich district of farm land near what is now 
known as the junction of Liliha and School 
Streets, because its chief was Honolulu, one of 
the high chiefs of the time of Kakuhihewa, 
according to the legends. Kamakau, the Ha- 
waiian historian, describes this farm district thus: 
"Honolulu was a small district, a pleasant land 
looking toward the west, — a fat land, with flow- 
ing streams and springs of water, abimdant 
water for taro patches. Mists resting inland 
breathed softly on the flowers of the hala- 
tree." 



LEGENDARY PLACES IN HONOLULU 15 

Kakuhihewa was a king of Oahu in the long, 
long ago, and was so noted that for centuries the 
island Oahu has been named after him '*The 
Oahu of Kakuhihewa." He divided the island 
among his favorite chiefs and officers, who gave 
their names to the places received by them from 
the king. Thus what is now known as Hono- 
lulu was until the time of Kamehameha I., 
about the year 1800, almost always mentioned 
as Kou, after the chief Kou, who was an ilamuku 
(marshal), under King Kakuhihewa. Kou ap- 
pears to have been a small district, or, rather, 
a chief's group of houses and grounds, loosely 
defined as lying between Hotel Street and the 
sea and between Nuuanu Avenue and Alakea 
Street. 

Ke-kai-o-Mamala was the name of the surf 
which came in the outer entrance of the harbor 
of Kou. It was named after Mamala, a chiefess 
who loved to play konane (Hawaiian checkers), 
drink awa, and ride the surf. Her first husband 
was the shark-man Ouha, who later became a 
shark-god, living as a great shark outside the 
reefs of Waikiki and Koko Head. Her second 
husband was the chief Hono-kau-pu, to whom 
the king gave the land east of Kou, which after- 
ward bore the name of its chief. In this section 
of Kou now called Honolulu were several very 
interesting places. 



l6 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

Kewalo was the place where the Kauwa, a 
very low class of servants, were drowned by 
holding their heads under water. The custom 
was known as ^^Ke-kai-heehee," *'kai'' meaning 
^'sea'' and '*hee" '^sHding along," hence the 
sliding of the servants under the waves of the 
sea. Kewalo was also the nesting-ground of the 
owl who was the cause of a battle between the 
owls and the king Kakuhihewa, where the owls 
from Kauai to Hawaii gathered together and de- 
feated the forces of the king. 

Toward the mountains above Kewalo lies 
Makiki plain, the place where rats abounded, 
living in a dense growth of small trees and 
shrubs. This was a famous place for hunting 
rats with bows and arrows. 

Ula-kua, the place where idols were made, was 
near the lumber-yards at the foot of the present 
Richards Street. 

Ka-wai-a-hao (The water belonging to Hao), 
the site of the noted old native church, was the 
location of a fine fountain of water belonging to 
a chief named Hao. 

Ke-kau-kukui was close to Ula-kua, and was 
the place where small konane (checker) boards 
were laid. These were flat stones with rows of 
little holes in which a game was played with 
black and white stones. Here Mamala and 
Ouha drank awa and played konane, and 



LEGENDARY PLACES IN HONOLULU 17 

Kekuanaoa, father of Kamehameha V., built his 
home. 

Kou was probably the most noted place for 
konane on Oahu. There was a famous stone 
almost opposite the site of the temple. Here 
the chiefs gathered for many a game. Property 
and even lives were freely gambled away. The 
Spreckels Building covers the site of this well- 
known gambling resort. 

In Hono-kau-pu was one of the noted places 
for roUing the flat-sided stone disc known as 
"the maika stone." This was not far from 
Richards and Queen Streets, although the great 
"Ulu-maika'' place for the gathering of the 
chiefs was in Kou. This was a hard, smooth 
track about twelve feet wide extending from the 
corner of Merchant and Fort Streets now oc- 
cupied by the Bank of Hawaii along the seaward 
side of Merchant Street to the place beyond 
Nuuanu Avenue known as the old iron works 
at Ula-ko-heo. It was used by the highest 
chiefs for rolling the stone disc known as "the 
maika stone.'' Kamehameha I. is recorded as 
having used this maika track. 

Ka-ua-nono-ula (rain-with-the-red-rainbow) 
was the place in this district for the wai-lua, 
or ghosts, to gather for their nightly games and 
sports. Under the shadows of the trees, near 
the present Hawaiian Board Mission rooms at 



1 8 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

the junction of Alakea and Merchant Streets,, 
these ghosts made night a source of dread to all 
the people. Another place in Honolulu for the 
gathering of ghosts was at the corner of King 
Street and Nuuanu Avenue. 

Puu-o-wai-na, or Punchbowl, was a ''hill of 
sacrifice" or ''offering,'' according to the mean- 
ing of the native words, and not "Wine-hill" as 
many persons have said. Kamakau, a native 
historian of nearly fifty years ago, says: "For- 
merly there was an imu ahi, a fire oven, for 
burning men on this hill. Chiefs and common 
people were burned as sacrifices in that noted 
place. Men were brought for sacrifice from 
Kauai, Oahu, and Maui, but not from Hawaii. 
People could be burned in this place for violat- 
ing the tabus of the tabu divine chiefs." 

"The great stone on the top of Punchbowl 
Hill was the place for burning men." 

Part of an ancient chant concerning Punch- 
bowl reads as follows: 

"O the raging tabu fire of Keaka, 
O the high ascending fire of the sacrifice I 
Tabu fire, scattered ashes. 
Tabu fire, spreading heat.'' 

Nuuanu Valley is full of interesting legendary 
places. The most interesting, however, is the 
little valley made by a mountain spur pushing 



LEGENDARY PLACES IN HONOLULU 19 

its way out from the Kalihi foothills into the 
larger valley, and bearing the name ^^Waolani/' 
the wilderness home of the gods, and now the 
home of Honolulu's Country Club. This region 
belonged to the eepa people. These were al- 
most the same as the ill-shaped, deformed or 
injured gnomes of European fairy tales. In 
this beautiful little valley which opened into 
Nuuanu Valley was the heiau Waolani built for 
Ka-hanai-a-ke-Akua (The chief brought up by 
the gods), long before the days of Kakuhihewa. 
It was said that the two divine caretakers of 
this chief were Kahano and Newa, and that 
Kahano was the god who lay down on the 
ocean, stretching out his hands until one rested 
on Kahiki (Tahiti or some other foreign land) 
and the other rested on Oahu. Over his arms 
as a great bridge walked the Menehunes, or 
fairy people, to Oahu. They came to be ser- 
vants for this young chief who was in the care 
of the gods. They built j&sh-ponds and temples. 
They lived in Manoa Valley and on Punchbowl 
Hill. Ku-leo-nui (Ku-with-the-loud-voice) was 
their master. He could call them any evening. 
His voice was heard over all the island. They 
came at once and almost invariably finished 
each task before the rays of the rising sun 
drove them to their hidden resorts in forest or 
wilderness. 



20 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

Waolani heiau was the place where the noted 
legendary musical shell "Kiha-pu" had its first 
home — from which it w^as stolen by Kapuni and 
carried to its historic home in Waipio Valley, 
Hawaii. Below Waolani Heights, the Mene- 
hunes built the temple Ka-he-iki for the " child- 
nourished-by-the-gods,'' and here the priest and 
prophet lived who founded the priest-clan called 
"Mo-o-kahuna," one of the most sacred clans of 
the ancient Hawaiians. Not far from this temple 
was the scene of the dramatic plea of an owl 
for her eggs when taken from Kewalo by a man 
who had found her nest. It forms part of the 
story of the battle of the owls and the king. 

Nearer the banks of the Nuuanu stream was 
the great bread-fruit tree into which a woman 
thrust her husband by magic power when he was 
about to be slain and offered as sacrifice to the 
gods. This tree became one of the most powerful 
wooden gods of the Hawaiians, being preserved, 
it is said, even to the times of Kamehameha I. 

At the foot of Nuuanu Valley is Pu-iwa, a 
place by the side of the Nuuanu stream. Here 
a father, Maikoha, told his daughters to bury 
his body, that from it might spring the wauke-* 
tree, used for making kapa ever since. From 
this place, the legend says, the wauke-tree 
spread over all the islands. 

•Mulberry, Broussonetia papyrifera. 



LEGENDARY PLACES IN HONOLULU 2i 

In the bed of the Nuuanu is the legendary 
stone called ^^The Canoe of the Dragon.'* 
This lies among the boulders in the stream 
not far from the old Kaumakapili Church 
premises. 

In Nuuanu Valley was the fierce conflict be- 
tween Kawelo, the strong man from Kauai, 
assisted by two friends, and a band of robbers. 
In this battle torn-up trees figured as mighty 
war-clubs. 

These are legendary places which border Kou, 
the ancient Honolulu. Besides these are many 
more spots of great interest, as in Waikiki and 
Manoa Valley, but these lie beyond the boun- 
daries of Kou and ancient Honolulu. In Kou 
itself was the noted Pakaka Temple. This 
temple was standing on the western side of the 
foot of Fort Street long after the fort was built 
from which the street was named. It was just 
below the fort. Pakaka was owned by Kinau, 
the mother of Kamehameha V. It was a heiau, 
or temple, built before the time of Kakuhihewa. 
In this temple, the school of the priests of Oahu 
had its headquarters for centuries. The walls 
of the temple were adorned with heads of men 
offered in sacrifice. 

Enormous quantities of stone were used in 
the construction of ail these heiaus often passed 
by hand from quarries at great distances so 



22 



LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 



the work of erection was one consuming much 
time and energy. 

According to the latest investigations there 
were one hundred and eight heiaus on the 
island of Oahu, some evidences of which may 
still be traced, showing the far-reaching influ- 
ence of kings and priests over these primitive 
people. 





THE GOD OF PAKAKA TEMPLE 23 

III 

THE GOD OF PAKAKA TEMPLE 

) AKAKA * was a heiau, or temple. There 
are several legends connected with this 
heiau. One of the most interesting is 
that which tells how the god of the temple came 
into being. 

The story of the god of this temple is a story 
of voyages and vicissitudes. Olopana had sailed 
away from Waipio, Hawaii, for the islands 
of distant seas. Somewhere in all that great 
nimiber of islands which were grouped under 
the general name ^^Kahiki'' Olopana found a 
home. Here his daughter Mu-lei-ula (Mu-with- 
the-red-garland) was experiencing great trouble 
being near to childbirth. For some reason 
Haumea, one of the divine Polynesian ancestors, 
had stopped for a time to visit the people of 
that land. When the friends were afraid that 
Mu-lei-ula would die, Haumea came to help, 
saying: "In our land the mother lives. The 
mother and child both live." The people said, 
"If you give us aid, how can we render payment 
or give you a reward? " 

Haumea said: "There is a beautiful tree with 

* Foot of Fort Street near lumber yards. 



24 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

two strange but glorious flowers, which I like 
very much. It is ' the tree of changing leaves' 
with two flowers, one kind singing sharply, and 
the other singing from time to time. For this 
tree I will save the life of the chief's daughter 
and her child. '* 

Gladly the sick girl and her friends promised 
to give this beautiful tree to Haumea. It was 
a tree dearly loved by the princess. 

Haumea commenced the prayers and incanta- 
tions which accompanied her treatment of the 
sick, and the chiefess rapidly grew stronger. 
This had come so quickly and easily that she 
repented the gift of the tree with the beautiful 
flowers, and cried out, '^I will not give the tree." 

Immediately she began to lose strength, and 
called to Haumea that she would give the tree 
if she could be forgiven and healed. However, 
•as strength came to her once more she again 
felt sorry for her tree and refused to let it go. 
Again the incantations were broken off and 
the divine aid withdrawn. 

Olopanain agony cried to his daughter: ''Give 
up your tree. Of what use will it be with its 
flowers if you die?" Then Haumea, with the 
most powerful incantations, gave her the final 
strength, and mother and child both lived and 
became well and strong. 

Haumea took the tree and travelled over the 



THE GOD OF FAKAKA TEMFLE 25 

far seas to distant Hawaii. On that larger isl- 
and she found no place to plant the tree. She 
crossed over to the island Maui, and came to the 
^'four rivers." There she found the awa of the 
gods and prepared it for drinking, but needed 
fresh water to mix with it. 

She laid her tree on the ground at Puu-kume 
by the Wai-hee stream and went down after 
water. When she returned the tree had rooted. 
While she looked it began to stand up and send 
forth branches. She built a stone wall around 
it, to protect it from the winds. When it blos- 
somed Haumea returned to her divine home in 
Nuumealani,* the land of mists and shadows 
where the gods dwelt. 

By and by a man took his stone axe and went 
out to cut a tree, perhaps to make a god. He 
saw a new tree, short and beautiful, and after 
hours of labor cut it down. The night was com- 
ing on, so he left it as it fell and went home. 

That night a fierce and mighty storm came 
down from the mountains. Blood-red were the 
streams of water pouring down into the valleys. 
During twenty nights and twenty days the a^ngry 
rain punished the land above and around Wai- 
hee. The river was more than a rushing tor- 
rent. It built up hills and dug ravines. It 
hurled its mighty waves against the wall inside 

*See "Home of the Ancestors," Part II., in Legends of Ghosts 
and Ghost-Gods. 



26 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

which the tree stood. It crushed the wall, 
scattered the stones, and bore the tree down one 
of the deep ravines. The branches were broken 
off and carried with the trunk of the tree far 
out into the ocean. 

For six months the waves tossed this burden 
from one place to another, and at last threw the 
largest branch on the reef near the beach of 
Kailua, on the island Hawaii. The people saw 
a very wonderful thing. Where this branch lay 
stranded in the water, fish of many kinds gath- 
ered leaping around it. The chiefs took this won- 
derful branch inland and made the god Makalei, 
which was a god of Hawaii for generations. 

Another branch came into the possession of 
some of the Maui chiefs, and was used as a 
stick for hanging bundles upon. It became a 
god for the chiefs of Maui, with the name Ku- 
ke-olo-ewa. 

The body of the tree rolled back and forth 
along the beach near the four waters, and was 
wrapped in the refuse of the sea. 

A chief and his wife had not yet found a god for 
their home. In a dream they were told to get a 
god. For three days they consulted priests, re- 
peated prayers and incantations, and offered 
sacrifices to the great gods, while they made 
search for wood from which to cut out their 
god. On the third night the omens led them 



THE GOD OF PAKAKA TEMPLE 27 

down to the beach and they saw this trunk of a 
tree rolling back and forth. A dim haze was 
playing over it in the moonlight. They took 
that tree, cut out their god, and called it Ku-hoo- 
nee-nuu. They built a heiau, or temple, for this 
god, and named that heiau Waihau and made 
it tabu, or a sacred place to which the priests 
and high chiefs alone were admitted freely. 

The mana, or divine power, of this god was 
very great, and it was a noted god from Hawaii 
to Kauai. Favor and prosperity rested upon 
this chief who had found the tree, made it a god, 
and built a temple for it. 

The king who was living on the island Oahu 
heard about this tree, and sent servants to the 
island Maui to find out whether or no the re- 
ports were true. If true they should bring that 
god to Oahu. 

They found the god and told the chief that the 
king wanted to establish it at Kou,* and would 
build a temple for it there. The chief readily 
gave up his god and it was carried over to its 
new home. 

So the temple, or heiau, was built at Kou and 
the god Ku-hoo-nee-nuu placed in it. This 
temple was Pakaka, the most noted temple on 
the island Oahu, while its god, the log of the tree 
from a foreign land, became the god of the chiefs 
of Oahu. 

• Ancient Honolulu. 




28 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

IV 

LEGEND OF THE BREAD-FRUIT TREE 

HE wonderful bread-fruit* tree was a 
great tree growing on the eastern bank 
the rippling brook Puehuehu.f It 
was a tabu tree, set apart for the high chief 
from Kou and the chiefs from Honolulu to rest 
under while on their way to bathe in the cele- 
brated diving-pool Wai-kaha-lulu. That tree 
became a god, and this is the story of its trans- 
formation: 

Papa and Wakea were the ancestors of the 
great scattered sea-going and sea-loving people 
living in all the islands now known as Polynesia. 
They had their home in every group of islands 
where their descendants could find room to 
multiply. 

They came to the island of Oahu, and, accord- 
ing to almost all the legends, were the first resi- 
dents. The story of the magic bread-fruit tree, 
however, says that Papa sailed from Kahiki (a 
far-oflf land) with her husband Wakea, landing 
on Oahu and finding a home in the mountain 
upland near the precipice Kilohana. 

Papa was a kupua — a woman having many 

• Ulu— Artocarpus incisa. t Near Nuuanu Street Bridge. 



LEGEND OF THE BREAD-FRUIT TREE 29 

wonderful and miraculous powers. She had also 
several names. Sometimes she was called Hau- 
mea, but at last she left her power and a new 
name, Ka-meha-i-kana, in the magic bread-fruit 
tree. 

Papa was a beautiful woman, whose skin 
shone like polished dark ivory through the flowers 
and vines and leaves which were the only clothes 
she knew. Where she and her husband had 
settled down they found a fruitful country — 
with bananas and sugar-cane and taro.* They 
built a house on the mountain ridge and feasted 
on the abundance of food around them. Here 
they rested well protected when rains were fall- 
ing or the hot sim was shining. 

Papa day by day looked over the seacoast 
which stretches away in miles of marvellous 
beauty below the precipices of the northern 
moimtain range of the island Oahu. Clear, deep 
pools, well filled with most delicate fish, lay rest- 
fuUy among moss-covered projections of the 
bordering coral reef. The restless murmur of 
surf waves beating in and out through the broken 
lines of the reef called to her, so, catching up some 
long leaves of the hala-tree, she made a light 
basket and hurried down to the sea. In a little 
while she had gathered sea-moss and caught all 
the crabs she wished to take home. 

• Colocasia antiquorum. 



30 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

She turned toward the mountain range and 
carried her burden to Hoakola, where there was a 
spring of beautiful clear, cold, fresh water. She 
laid down her moss and crabs to wash them clean. 

She looked up, and on the mountain-side dis- 
cerned there something strange. She saw her 
husband in the hands of men who had captured 
and bound him and were compelling him to 
walk down the opposite side of the range. Her 
heart leaped with fear and anguish. She forgot 
her crabs and moss and ran up the steep way 
to her home. The moss rooted itself by the 
spring, but the crabs escaped to the sea. 

On the Honolulu side of the mountains were 
many chiefs and their people, living among whom 
was Lele-hoo-mao, the ruler, whose fields were 
often despoiled by Papa and her husband. It 
was his servants who while searching the country 
around these fields, had found and captured 
Wakea. They were forcing him to the temple 
Pakaka * to be there offered in sacrifice. They 
were shouting, "We have found the mischief- 
maker and have tied him." 

Papa threw around her some of the vines 
which she had fashioned into a skirt, and ran 
over the hills to the edge of Nuuanu Valley. 

Peering down the valley she saw her husband 
and his captors, and cautiously she descended. 

* The Pakaka temple through its hundreds of years of existence 
received from time to time human sacrifice. 






vm 





BREADFRUIT-TREES 



LEGEND OF THE BREAD-FRUIT TREE 31 

She found a man by the side of the stream 
Puehuehu, who said to her: ^^A man has been 
carried by who is to be baked in an oven this 
day. The fire is burning in the valley below." 

Papa said, ^^Give me water to drink." 

The man said, "I have none." 

Then Papa took a stone and smashed it against 
the ground. It broke through into a pool of 
water. She drank and hastened on to the bread- 
fruit tree at Nini, where she overtook her hus- 
band and the men who guarded him. He was 
alive, his hands bound behind him and his leaf 
clothing torn from his body. Wailing and cry- 
ing that she must kiss him, she rushed to him 
and began pushing and pulling him, whirling 
him around and around. 

Suddenly the great bread-fruit tree opened and 
she leaped with him through the doorway into 
the heart of the tree. The opening closed in a 
moment. 

Papa, by her miraculous power, opened the 
tree on the other side. They passed through 
and went rapidly up the mountain-side to their 
home, which was near the head of Kalihi Valley. 

As they ran Papa threw off her vine pa-u, or 
skirt. The vine became the beautiful morning- 
glory, delicate in blossom and powerful in me- 
dicinal qualities. The astonished men had lost 
their captive. According to the ancient Hawaiian 



32 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

proverb, "Their fence was around the field of 
nothingness." They pushed against the tree, 
but the opening was tightly closed. They ran 
around under the heavy-leaved branches and 
found nothing. They believed that the great 
tree held their captive in its magic power. 

Quickly ran the messenger to their high chief, 
Lele-hoo-mao, to tell him about the trouble at 
the tabu bread-fruit tree at Nini and that the 
sacrifice for which the oven was being heated 
was lost. 

The chiefs consulted together and decided to 
cut down that tree and take the captive out of 
his hiding-place. They sent tree-cutters with 
their stone axes. 

The leader of the tree-cutters struck the tree 
with his stone axe. A chip leaped from the tree, 
struck him, and he fell dead. 

Another caught the axe. Again chips flew and 
the workman fell dead. 

Then all the cutters struck and gashed the 
tree. 

Whenever a chip hit any one he died, and the 
sap of the tree flowed out and was spattered 
under the blows of the stone axes. Whenever a 
drop touched a workman or a bystander he fell 
dead. 

The people were filled with fear and cried to 
their priest for help. 



LEGEND OF THE BREAD-FRUIT TREE 2>Z 

Wohi, the priest, came to the tree, bowed be- 
fore it, and remained in silent thought a long 
time. Then he raised his head and said: "It 
was not a woman who went into that tree. 
It was Papa from Kahiki. She is a goddess 
and has a multitude of bodies. If we treat her 
well we shall not be destroyed." 

Wohi commanded the people to offer sacrifices 
at the foot of the tree. This was done with 
prayers and incantations. A black pig, black 
awa and red fish were offered to Papa. Then 
Wohi commanded the wood-cutters to rub 
themselves bountifully with coconut oil and go 
fearlessly to their work. Chips struck them and 
the sap of the tree was spattered over them, 
but they toiled on imhurt imtil the great tree 
feU. 

Out of this magic bread-fruit tree a great 
goddess was made. Papa gave to it one of her 
names, Ka-meha-i-kana, and endowed it with 
power so that it was noted from Kauai to Hawaii. 
It became one of the great gods of Oahu, but 
was taken to Maui, where Kamehameha secured 
it as his god to aid in estabHshing his rule over 
all the islands. 

The peculiar divine gift supposed to reside 
in this image made from the wonderful bread- 
fruit tree was the ability to aid worshippers 
in winning land and power from other people 



34 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

and wisely employing the best means of firmly 
establishing their own government, thus pro- 
tecting and preserving the kingdom. 

Papa dwelt above the Kalihi Valley and looked 
down over the plains of Honolulu and Ewa cov- 
ered with well-watered growing plants which 
gave food or shade to the multiplying people. 

It is said that after a time she had a daughter, 
Kapo, who also had kupua, or magic power. 
Kapo had many names, such as Kapo-ula-kinau 
and Laka. She was a high tabu goddess of the 
ancient Hawaiian hulas, or dances. She had 
also the power of assuming many bodies at will 
and could appear in any form from the mo-o, or 
lizard, to a human being. 




Note: Kapo is the name of a place and of a 
wonderful stone with a ^* front like the front of 
a house and a back like the tail of a fish." The 
legends of sixty years ago say that Kapo still 



LEGEND OF THE BREAD-FRUIT TREE 35 

stood in that place as one of the guardians of 
Kalihi Valley. 

Kapo was born from the eyes of Haumea, or 
Papa. 

Papa looked away from Kapo and there was 
born from her head a sharp pali, or precipice, 
often mist-covered; this was Ka-moho-alii. 
Then Pele was born. She was the one who had 
mighty battles with Kamapuaa, the pig-man, 
who almost destroyed the volcano Kilauea. 
It was Ka-moho-alii who rubbed sticks and 
rekindled the volcanic fires for his sister Pele, 
thus driving Kamapuaa down the sides of Kilauea 
into the ocean. 

These three, according to the Honolulu legends, 
were the highest-born children of Papa and 
Wakea. 

Down the Kalihi stream below Papa's home 
were two stones to which the Hawaiians gave 
eepa, or gnomelike, power. If any traveller 
passes these stones on his way up to Papa's rest- 
ing-place, that wayfarer stops by these stones, 
gathers leaves and makes leis, or garlands, and 
places them on these stones, that there may be 
no trouble in all that day's wanderings. 

Sometimes mischievous people dip branches 
from lehua-trees in water and sprinkle the eepa 
rocks; then woe to the traveller, for piercing 



36 



LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 



rains are supposed to fall. From this comes the 
proverb belonging to the residents of Kalihi 
Valley, ^'Here is the sharp -headed rain of 
Kalihi" ("Ka ua poo lipilipi o Kalihi"). 




THE GODS WHO FOUND WATER 37 



THE GODS WHO FOUND WATER 



^OUR great gods with a large retinue of 
> lesser gods came from Kahiki to the 
'^ Hawaiian Islands. '^ Kahiki" meant 
any land beyond the skies which came down to 
the seas around the Hawaiian group. These gods 
settled for a time in Nuuanu Valley, back of the 
lands now known as Honolulu. These four great 
gods were worshipped by the Polynesians scat- 
tered all over the Pacific Ocean. Their names 
were Ku, Lono, Ka-ne and Kanaloa. 

Ka-ne and Kanaloa were the water-finders, 
opening springs and pools over all the islands, 
each pool known now as Ka-Wai-a-ke-Akua 
(The water provided by a god). 

In one of the very old Hawaiian newspapers 
the question was asked, ''What are the waters 
of Ka-ne?'' The answers came: The heavy 
showers of life-giving rain, the mountain stream 
swelling into a torrent lifting and carrying away 
canoes, the rainbow-colored rain loved by Ka-ne, 
the continually flowing brooks of the valleys 
and the fresh waters found anywhere — these 
were the waters of Ka-ne. 



38 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

It may reasonably be surmised that from 
the realization of the blessing of fresh waters 
the ancient Polynesians as well as the Hawaiians 
looked up to some waters to be found somewhere 
in the lands of the gods, which were called "the 
waters of life of Ka-ne." The Hawaiian legends 
said: "If any one is dead and this water is 
thrown upon him, he becomes alive again. 
Old people bathing in this water go back to 
their youth." If the common fresh water of 
the hills and plains was good, it was easy to 
look beyond to something better. 

The gods Ka-ne and Kanaloa were very closely 
allied to the farming interests of the people of 
the long ago. Pra}^ers were offered to them in 
all the different stages of the process of farming. 
When a field was selected some article of food 
was cooked and offered with the prayer: 

"Here is food, 
O Gods, Ka-ne and Kanaloa! 
Here is food for us. 
Give life to us and our family. 
Life for the parents feeble with age. 
Life for all in the household. 
When digging and planting our land 
Life for us — 
This is our prayer. Amama." 

A similar prayer was made while cultivating 
the crops or harvesting the ripened product. 



THE GODS WHO FOUND WATER 39 

It may be that the close connection of waters 
with plant growth made these two gods the 
especial gods of farmers. 

There was a host of other gods whose names 
were sometimes used in prayers offered while 
farming. Each of these gods bore the name 
"Ka-ne'' (sometimes Kuor Lono would be sub- 
stituted), followed by an adjective showing 
some method of work, but all these names of 
lesser gods were apparently used to explain the 
particular task desired, as when the name "Ka- 
ne-apuaa" was mentioned in some prayers, the 
word '^puaa" (pig) carried the idea of digging or 
uprooting the soil. 

Ka-ne and Kanaloa were great travellers. 
Together they journeyed over Kauai, coming 
(according to an account written in the Kuokoa 
about 1868 by the Rev. J. Waiamau) from far- 
away lands. They appeared more like men than 
gods, and the Kauai people did not worship 
them, so they opened up only a few springs 
and crossed over to the island Oahu. 

Throughout all the islands the awa root has 
been found. It was bitter and very astringent, 
but when crushed and mixed with water the 
juice became a liquor greatly loved by the 
people. "These two gods drank awa from 
Kauai to Hawaii/' so the old legends say. 

They journeyed along the coast of the island 



40 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

Oahu until they came to Kalihi, one of the pres- 
ent suburbs of the city of Honolulu. For a 
long time they had been looking up the hill- 
sides and along the water courses for awa* — but 
had not found what seemed desirable. 

At Kalihi a number of fine awa roots were 
growing. They pulled up the roots and pre- 
pared them for chewing. When the awa was 
ready Kanaloa looked for fresh water, but could 
not find any. So he said to Ka-ne: "Our awa 
is good, but there is no water in this place. 
Where can we find water for this awa?'' 

Ka-ne said, "There is indeed water here." 
He had a "large and strong staff," in some of the 
legends called a spear. This he took in his 
hands and stepped out on the bed of lava which 
now underlies the soil of that region. He began 
to strike the earth. Deep went the point of his 
staff into the rock, smashing and splintering it 
and breaking open a hole out of which water 
leaped for them to mix with their prepared awa. 
This pool of fresh water has been known since 
the days of old as Ka - puka - Wai - o - Kalihi 
(The water door of KaHhi). The gods, stupefied 
by the liquor, lay down and slept. When at 
last they were weary of that resting-place, they 
passed Nuuanu Valley and went into the most 
beautiful rainbow valley of the world, Manoa 
Valley, the home of the rainbow princess. This 

* Piper Methysticum. 



THE GODS WHO FOUND WATER 41 

valley is one of the well-settled suburbs of 
Honolulu. 

Well-wooded precipices guard the upper end 
of the valley and make diflScult the path to the 
tops of the mountains rising thousands of feet 
above. 

Here the gods found most excellent awa, and 
Kanaloa cried, "O my brother, this is awa sur- 
passing any other we have foimd; but where shall 
I go to find water?'' Ka-ne replied, "Here in 
this hillside is water." So he took his staff and 
struck it fiercely against the precipice by which 
they had found av/a. Rapidly the rocks were 
broken off. The precipice crept back from the 
mighty strokes of the god and a large pool of 
clear, cool water appeared among the great stones 
which had fallen. There they mixed awa and 
water and drank again and again until the sleep 
of the drunkard came and they rested by the 
fountain they had made. This pool is still at 
the head of Manoa Valley, and to this day is 
called Ka-Wai-a-ke-Akua (The water pro- 
vided by a god). 

The servants of hundreds of chiefs have borne 
water from this place to their thirsty masters. 

In the days of Kamehameha I. very often 
messengers came from this pool of water of the 
gods with calabashes full of water swinging 
from the ends of sticks laid over their shoulders. 



42 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

When they came near any individual or group 
of Hawaiians they had to call out loudly, giv- 
ing warning so that all by whom they passed 
could fall prostrate before the gift of the gods 
to the great king. 

Ka-ne and Kanaloa made many springs of 
fresh waters in all the different islands. Some- 
times a watchman refused to let them take the 
desired awa — the legends say that they called 
such persons stingy, and caught them and put 
them to death. At Honuaula they broke a 
large place and made a great fish-pond. 

They w^nt to Kohala, Hawaii, and found a 
temple in which they Uved for a long time, and 
the people of Hawaii thought they were gods. 
Therefore they brought sacrifices and offered 
worship, and Ka-ne and Kanaloa were satisfied 
to remain as two of the gods of the islands. 

This idea of '' striking a rock for water springs" 
is not connected with or derived in any way from 
Biblical sources. The tool used by Hawaiians 
for centuries for digging was called the o-o, 
which was but little more than a sharp-pointed 
stick or staff, which was a lever as well as a spade. 
There is nothing in the legend beyond the 
expression of a desire to locate water springs as 
a gift from the gods. 



TEE WATER OF LIFE OF KA-NE 43 

VI 

THE WATER OF LIFE OF KA-NE 
A Legend of Old Hawaii 

"When the moon dies she goes to the living water of 
Ka-ne, to the water which can restore all to life, even the 
moon to the path in the sky.'^ — Maori Legend of New Zea- 
land, 



»^glHE Hawaiians of long ago shared in the 
m^S^ belief that somewhere along the deep 
^^*^^ sea beyond the horizon around their 
islands, or somewhere in the cloud-land above 
the heavens which rested on their mountains, 
there was a land known as '^The land of the 
water of life of the gods." In this land was a 
lake of living water in which always rested the 
power of restoration to life. This water was 
called in the Hawaiian language Ka wai ola a 
Ka-ne, literally ^^The water living of Ka-ne," 
or ^'The water of life of Ka-ne." 

.Mention of this '^wai ola" is found in many 
of the Pacific island groups, such as New Zea- 
land, the Tongas, Samoa, Tahiti and the Ha- 
waiian Islands. The thought of '^ water of life" 
cannot be limited to only a few references in 
legends. Some of the most interesting legen- 



44 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

dary experiences in several island groups belong 
to the stories of a search after this *^ water of 
life/' 

Ka-ne was one of the four greatest gods of 
the Polynesians. In his hands was placed the 
care of the water of life. If any person secured 
this water, the power of the god went with it. 
A sick person drinking it would recover health, 
and a dead person sprinkled with it would be re- 
stored to life. 

In the misty past of the Hawaiian Islands a 
king w^as very, very ill. All his friends thought 
that he was going to die. The family came 
together in the enclosure around the house 
where the sick man lay. Three sons were wailing 
sorely because of their heavy grief. 

An old man, a stranger, passing by asked them 
the cause of the trouble. One of the yoimg men 
replied, ^^Our father lies in that house very near 
death.^' 

The old man looked over the wall upon the 
young men and said slowly: '^I have heard of 
something which would make your father well. 
He must drink of the water of life of Ka-ne. 
But this is very hard to find and difficult to 
get.'' 

The old man disappeared, but the eldest son 
said, '^I shall not fail to find this water of life, 
and I shall be my father's favorite and shall 



THE WATER OF LIFE OF KA-NE 45 

have the kingdom." He ran to his father for 
permission to go and find this water of life. 

The old king said: ''No, there are many diffi- 
culties and even death in the way. It is better 
to die here.'' The young prince urged his father 
to let him try, and at last received permission. 

The prince, taking his water calabash, hastened 
away. As he went along a path through the 
forest, suddenly an ugly little man, a dwarf (an 
a-a), appeared in his path and called out, ''Where 
are you going that you are in such a hurry?" 
The prince answered roughly: "Is this your busi- 
ness? I have nothing to say to you." He pushed 
the little man aside and ran on. 

The dwarf was very angry and determined to 
punish the rough speaker, so he made the path 
twist and turn and grow narrow before the trav- 
eller. The further the prince ran, the more 
bewildered he was, and the more narrow became 
the way, and thicker and thicker were the trees 
and vines and ferns through which the path 
wound. At last he fell to the earth, crawling 
and fighting against the tangled masses of ferns 
and the clinging tendrils of the vines of the land 
of fairies and gnomes. They twined themselves 
around him and tied him tight with living coils, 
and finally he lay like one who was dead. 

For a long time the family waited and at last 
came to the conclusion that he had been over- 



46 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

come by some difficulty. The second son said 
that he would go and find that water of life, so 
taking his water calabash he ran swiftly along 
the path which his brother had taken. His 
thought was also the selfish one, that he might 
succeed where his brother had failed and so win 
the kingdom. 

As he ran along he met the same little man, 
who was the king of the fairies although he ap- 
peared as a dwarf. The little man called out, 
''Where are you going in such a hurry?'' 

The prince spoke roughly, pushed him out of 
the way, and rushed on. Soon he also was caught 
in the tangled woods and held fast like one who 
was dead. 

Then the last, the youngest son, took his 
calabash and went away thinking that he might 
be able to rescue his brothers as well as get the 
water of life for his father. He met the same 
little man, who asked him where he was going. 
He told the dwarf about the king's illness and 
the report of the ''water of life of Ka-ne," and 
asked the dwarf if he could aid in any way. 
"For," said the prince, "my father is near death, 
and this living water will heal him and I do not 
know the way." 

The little man said: "Because you have spoken 
gently and have asked my help and have not 
been rough and rude as were your brothers, I 



THE WATER OF LIFE OF KA-NE 47 

will tell you where to go and will give you aid. 
The path will open before you at the bidding of 
this strong staff which I give you. By and by 
you will come to the palace of a king who is a 
sorcerer. In his house is the fountain of that 
water of life. You cannot get into that house 
unless you take three bundles of food which I 
will give you. Take the food in one hand and 
your strong staff in the other. Strike the door 
of that king's house three times with your staff 
and an opening will be made. Then you will 
see two dragons with open mouths ready to 
devour you. Quickly throw food in their mouths 
and they will become quiet. Fill your calabash 
with the living water and hurry away. At 
midnight the doors will be shut, and you can- 
not escape." 

The prince thanked the little man, took the 
presents and went his way rejoicing, and after 
a long time he came to the strange land and the 
sorcerer's house. Three times he struck until 
he broke the wall and made a door for himself. 
He saw the dragons and threw the food into their 
mouths, making them his friends. He went 
in and saw some young chiefs, who welcomed 
him and gave him a war-club and a bundle of 
food. He went on to another room, where he 
met a beautiful maiden whom he loved at once 
with all his heart. She told him as she looked 



48 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

in his eyes that after a time they would meet 
again and live as husband and wife. Then she 
showed him where he could get the water of 
life, and warned him to be in haste. He dipped 
his calabash in the spring and leaped through 
the door just at the stroke of midnight. 

With great joy he hastened from land to land 
and from sea to sea watching for the little man, 
the a-a, who had aided him so much. As if 
his wish were known soon the little man appeared 
and asked him how he fared on his journey. 
The prince told him about the long way and his 
success and then offered to pay as best he could 
for all the aid so kindly given. 

The dwarf refused all reward. Then the 
prince said he would be so bold as to ask one 
favor more. The little man said, ^^You have 
been so thoughtful in dealing with me as one 
highly honored by you, ask and perhaps I can 
give you what you wish.'' 

The prince said, "I do not want to return home 
without my brothers; can you help me find 
them?" *^They are dead in the forest,'' said 
the dwarf. "If you find them they will only 
do you harm. Let them rest in their beds of 
vines and ferns. They have evil hearts." 

But the young chief pressed his kindly thought 
and the dwarf showed him the tangled path 
through the forest. With his magic staff he 



THE WATER OF LIFE OF KA-NE 49 

opened the way and found his brothers. He 
sprinkled a little of the water of life over them 
and strength returned to them. He told them 
how he had found the ''living water of Ka-ne/' 
and had received gifts and also the promise of 
a beautiful bride. The brothers forgot their 
long death-like sleep and were jealous and angry 
at the success of cheir younger brother. 

They journeyed far before they reached home. 
They passed a strange land where the high 
chief was resisting a large body of rebels. The 
land was lying desolate and the people were 
starving. The young prince pitied the high chief 
and his people and gave them a part of the 
bundle of food from the house of the god Ka-ne. 
They ate and became very strong. Then he let 
the chief have his war-club. Quickly the rebels 
were destroyed and the land had quiet and peace. 

He aided another chief in his wars, and still 
another in his difficulties, and at last came with his 
brothers to the seacoast of his own land. There 
they lay down to sleep, but the wicked brothers 
felt that there were no more troubles in which 
they would need the magic aid of their brother, 
so they first planned to kill him, but the magic 
war-club seemed to defend him. Then they 
took his calabash of the water of life and poured 
the water into their water-jars, filling his cala- 
bash again with salt, sickish sea-water. They 



so LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

went on home the next morning. The young 
prmce pressed forward with his calabash, gave 
it to his father, telling him to drink and re- 
cover life. The king drank deeply of the salt 
water and was made more seriously sick, almost 
to death. Then the older brothers came, charg- 
ing the yoimg prince with an attempt to poison 
his father. They gave him the real water of 
life and he immediately became strong as in the 
days of his youth. 

The king was very angry with the youngest 
son and sent him away with an officer who was 
skilled in the forest. The officer was a friend of 
the young prince and helped him to find a safe 
hiding-place, where he lived a long time. 

By and by the three great kings came from 
distant lands with many presents for the prince 
who had given them peace and great prosperity. 
They told the father what a wonderful son he 
had, and wanted to give him their thanks. The 
father called the officer whom he had sent away 
with the young man and acknowledged the 
wrong he had done. The officer told him the 
prince was not dead, so the king sent messengers 
to find him. 

Meanwhile one of the most beautiful princesses 
of all the world had sent word everywhere that 
she would be seated in her house and any prince 
who could walk straight to her along a line 



THE WATER OF LIFE OF KA-NE 51 

drawn in the air by her sorcerers, without turning 
to either side, should be her husband. There was 
a day set for the contest. 

The messengers sent out by the king to find the 
prince knew all about this contest, so they made 
all things known to their young chief when they 
found him. He went with his swift steps of love 
to the land of the beautiful girl. His brothers 
had both failed in their most careful endeavors, 
but the young prince followed his heart's desire 
and went straight to a door which opened of its 
own accord. Out leaped the maiden of the 
palace of the land of Ka-ne. Into his arms 
she rushed and sent her servants everywhere to 
proclaim that her lord had been found. 

The brothers ran away to distant lands and 
never returned. The prince and the princess 
became king and queen and lived in great peace 
and happiness, administering the affairs of their 
kingdom for the welfare of their subjects. 




52 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

VII 

MAMALA THE SURF-RIDER 

"Piw^iwOU'' was a noted place for games and 
nlf^^j sports among the chiefs of long ago. 
^ ^ ^ A little to the east of Kou was a pond 
with a beautiful grove of coconut-trees belonging 
to a chief, Hono-kau-pu, and afterward known 
by his name. Straight out toward the ocean 
was the narrow entrance to the harbor, through 
which rolled the finest surf waves of old Hono- 
lulu. The surf bore the name *^Ke-kai-o- 
Mamala'' (The sea of Mamala). When the surf 
rose high it was called '^Ka-nuku-o-Mamala" 
(The nose of Mamala). 

Mamala was a chiefess of kupua character. 
This meant that she was a mo-o, or gigantic liz- 
ard or crocodile, as well as a beautiful woman, 
and could assume whichever shape she most 
desired. One of the legends says that she was 
a shark and woman, and had for her husband 
the shark-man Ouha, afterward a shark-god 
having his home in the ocean near Koko Head. 
Mamala and Ouha drank awa together and 
played konane on the large smooth stone at 
Kou. 

Mamala was a wonderful surf-rider. Very 



Kiim*^ i^f - t-^ - ^'" 



w 

hi 
> 

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O 
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O 
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^^^^ifiiiiiifii- 



> 
o 

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^ T^^S 



MAMALA THE SURF-RIDER 53 

skilfully she danced on the roughest waves. 
The surf in which she most delighted rose far 
out in the rough sea, where the winds blew 
strong and whitecaps were on waves which rolled 
in rough disorder into the bay of Kou. The 
people on the beach, watching her, filled the air 
with resounding applause, clapping their hands 
over her extraordinary athletic feats. 

The chief, Hono-kau-pu, chose to take Mamala 
as his wife, so she left Ouha and lived with her 
new husband. Ouha was angry and tried at 
first to injure Hono and Mamala, but he was 
driven away. He fled to the lake Ka-ihi-Kapu 
toward Waikiki. There he appeared as a man 
with a basketful of shrimps and fresh fish, 
which he offered to the women of that place, 
saying, "Here is life [i.e.j a living thing] for 
the children." He opened his basket, but the 
shrimps and the fish leaped out and escaped 
into the water. 

The women ridiculed the god-man. As the 
ancient legendary characters of all Polynesia 
could not endure anything that brought shame 
or disgrace upon them in the eyes of others, 
Ouha fled from the taunts of the women, cast- 
ing off his human form, and dissolving his con- 
nection with humanity. Thus he became the 
great shark-god of the coast between Waikiki 
and Koko Head. 



54 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

The surf-rider was remembered in the beau- 
tiful mele, or chant, coming from ancient times 
and called the mele of Hono-kau-pu: 

"The surf rises at Koolau, 
Blowing the waves into mist, 
Into little drops, 

Spray falling along the hidden harbor. 
There is my dear husband Ouha, 
There is the shaking sea, the running sea of Kou, 
The crab-like moving sea of Kou. 
Prepare the awa to drink, the crab to eat. 
The small konane board is at Hono-kau-pu. 
My friend on the highest point of the surf. 
This is a good surf for us. 
My love has gone away. 
Smooth is the floor of Kou, 
Fine is the breeze from the mountains. 
I wait for you to return, 
The games are prepared, 
Pa-poko, pa-loa, pa-lele, 
Leap away to Tahiti 

By the path to Nuumealani (home of the gods,) 
Will that lover (Ouha) return? 
I belong to Hono-kau-pu, 
From the top of the tossing surf waves. 
The eyes of the day and the night are forgotten. 
Kou has the large konane board. 
This is the day, and to-night 
The eyes meet at Kou." 



^ 




VIII 
A SHARK PUNISHED AT WAIKIKI 



H 



MONG the legendary characters of the 
early Hawaiians was Ka-ehu — the little 
yellow shark of Pearl Harbor. He had 
been given magic power and great wisdom by 
his ancestor Ka-moho-alii the shark-god, brother 
of the fire goddess Pele. 

Part of his Hfe had been spent with his par- 
ents, who guarded the sea precipices of the 
Coast of Puna in the southern part of the island 
Hawaii. While at Pearl Harbor he became 
homesick for the beauty of Puna, so he chanted: 

"O my land of rustling lehua*-trees! 
Rain is treading on your budding flowers, 
It carries them to the sea. 
They meet the fish in the sea. 
This is the day when love meets love, 
My longings are stirring within me 
For the spirit friends of my land. 
They call me back to my home, 
I must return.'* 



* Ohia-lehua. Metrosideros polymorpha. 



S6 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

Ka-ehu called his shark friends and started 
along the Oahu shores on his way to Hawaii. 
At Waikiki they met Pehu, a shark visitor from 
Maui, who lived in the sea belonging to Hono- 
ka-hau. Pehu was a man-eating shark and was 
swimming back and forth at Kalehua-wike.* He 
was waiting for some surf-rider to go out far 
enough to be caught. 

Ka-ehu asked him what he was doing there. 
He replied, ''I am catching a crab for my break- 
fast." 

Ka-ehu said, ^^We will help you catch your 
crab." 

He told Pehu to go near the coral reef while 
he and his large retinue of sharks would go 
seaward. When a number of surf-riders were 
far out he and his sharks would appear and 
drive them shoreward in a tumultuous rush; 
then Pehu could easily catch the crab. This 
pleased the shark from Maui, so he went close 
to the reef and hid himself in its shadows. 

Ka-ehu said to his friends: ^^We must kill 
this man-eating shark who is destroying our 
people. This will be a part of our pay to them 
for honoring us at Puu-loa (Pearl Harbor). 
We will all go and push Pehu into the shallow 
water." 

A number of surf-riders poised on the waves, 

• Near the Moana Hotel. 



A SHARK PUNISHED AT WAIKIKI 57 

and Pehu called for the other sharks to come, 
but Ka-ehu told him to wait for a better 
chance. Soon two men started on a wave 
from the distant dark blue sea where the high 
surf begins. 

Ka-ehu gave a signal for an attack. He told 
his friends to rush in under the great wave and 
as it passed over the waiting Pehu, crowd the men 
and their surf-boards to one side and push the 
leaping Pehu so that he would be upset. Then 
while he was floundering in the surf they must 
hurl him over the reef. 

As Pehu leaped to catch one of the coming 
surf-riders he was astonished to see the man 
shoved to one side, then as he rose almost straight 
up in the water he was caught by the other 
sharks and tossed over and over until he plunged 
head first into a deep hole in the coral. There he 
thrashed his great tail about, but only forced him- 
self farther in so that he could not escape. 

The surf-riders were greatly frightened when 
they saw the company of sharks swimming 
swiftly outside the coral reef — but they were 
not afraid of Pehu. They went out to the hole 
and killed him and cut his body in pieces. 
Inside the body they found hair and bones, 
showing that this shark had been destroying 
some of their people. 

They took the pieces of the body of that 



58 



LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 



great fish to Pele-ula,* where they made a great 
oven and burned the pieces. 

Ka-ehu passed on toward Hawaii as a knight- 
errant, meeting many adventures and punishing 
evil-minded residents of the great sea. 

* Near comer Nuuanu and Beretania Streets. 




teqUvt^ ^t\r^eT 



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*.%,.. 



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■t0: 



Hi, miB* 




-"-v. 









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, ^^ ^, 



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Ji^' 




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i^a. 



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THE LEGENDARY ORIGIN OF KAPA 59 

IX 
THE LEGENDARY ORIGIN OF KAPA 

Note: Dr. Brigham, the director of the Bishop 
Museum in Honolulu, well says, ^^Kapa (tapa) 
is simply ka (the) and pa (beaten) or the 
beaten thing.'' 

The cloth used for centuries by the Hawai- 
ians and some other Polynesians was *Hhe 
beaten thing" resulting from beating the inner 
mucilaginous bark of certain trees into pulp and 
then into sheets which could be used for cloth- 
ing or covering. 

The letters ''k'' and ''V have from time 
inmaemorial been interchangeable among the 
Hawaiians, therefore the words '^kapa'' and 
"tapa" have both been freely used as the 
name of the ancient wood-pulp cloth of the 
Hawaiians. 

The old people said that in the very long ago 
their ancestors did not have anything like the 
kapa cloth which has been known for many 
centuries. They said also that there was no 
kapa maoli, meaning that there was nothing in 
nature which provided clothing or covering. 
Very little reference is made in the legends to the 
use of skins as clothing, although the dog and 



6o LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

pig were brought with chickens by their early 
ancestors. 

The clothing of the oldest time was sometimes 
made by tying dried banana leaves around the 
body, and coverings were made by throwing dry 
banana leaves over the body. Thus Kawelo was 
warmed and brought back to life, according to 
one of the most famous legends of the island Kauai. 

The long, fragrant leaves of the ti* plant were 
dried, soaked in water until soft, the outside 
scraped off, then fastened together by braiding 
or tying. In this way a very warm cloak was 
made and worn by bird-catchers. They found 
it very good for shedding rain and keeping out 
cold when they went into the mountains. 

Sometimes the long leaves of the Lau-hala were 
thatched into covering for the body as well as 
for the house. So also grass was braided into 
very fine cloaks as well as into mats. Banana 
leaves hanging in strips like a fringe were used 
for malos (loin cloths) for men, and pa-us (skirts) 
for women. 

For many generations the Hawaiians made 
most beautiful and costly feather garments. 
They braided or wove a foundation mesh of very 
fine vegetable fibres, such as the long threads of 
the ieief vine. This mesh was fashioned into a 
mahiole, or warrior's helmet, a kihei, or shoulder 

* Cordyline terminalis. f Freycinetii Arnotti. 



THE LEGENDARY ORIGIN OF KARA 6 1 

cape, or an ahuula,or long cloak, and covered with 
the most brilliant red and golden feathers which 
could be secured from the birds of the forest. 

In the legend of Makuakaumana the gods 
Ka-ne and Kanaloa are represented as feeHng 
pity for one of their worshippers when they saw 
him shivering in a fierce storm of cold rain; 
therefore they taught him how to make a kihei, 
or shoulder cape. Great was the wonder of the 
people of the northern side of the island of Oahu 
when he appeared among them and taught them 
how to make cloaks like ''the gift of the gods.'' 
The legend is interesting, but only shows that 
the people sometime learned how to make a 
work-day cloak. Presumably the Hawaiian 
method of pounding the adhesive bark of certain 
trees until that bark becomes a pulpy mass and 
then making it into sheets and drying it was 
used in Samoa and many other islands of the 
Pacific Ocean and also even in Mexico hundreds 
of years ago. Evidently the Hawaiian brought 
the art with him or learned it from the sea rovers 
of about the tenth century. Nevertheless, the 
Hawaiian legend of the origin of kapa is a myth 
well worth keeping on record in Hawaiian liter- 
ature. It was partly published in a native paper, 
the Kuokoa, in 1865, but many references in 
other legends printed about the same time fill out 
the story. 



62 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 





JACK of Honolulu a beautiful valley rises 
in a gentle slope between two rugged, 
precipitous ranges of lava mountains 
until it reaches cloudland and drinks ceaselessly 
from the fountains of the sky. A stream of 
laughing water rising from waterfalls blown into 
spray by swift winds rushes and leaps in number- 
less cascades through pleasant groves down this 
valley of restful shadows until it is lost in the 
coral reefs of an iridescent sea. 

This is the noted Nuuanu Valley of winding 
ways loved by sightseers as they climb to the 
grand outlook over extinct craters, island coast 
and boundless ocean, called "the view from 
Nuuanu PaU.'' 

This was the valley supposed to have been 
the first habitation of the gods, from which all 
life spread over the island group. Here the 
gnomes, or the eepa people, had their home, and 
here the Menehunes (the fairies) built a temple 
for ''the child adopted by the gods." 

The waters of the valley stream fertilized large 
areas where the valley broadened into the broad 



THE LEGENDARY ORIGIN OF KAPA 63 

seaside plain in which now lies the city of Hono- 
lulu. Here at Pu-iwa, by the side of the run- 
ning water, a farmer by the name of Maikoha 
lived with his daughters, having no care except 
raising whatever food they needed for them- 
selves and for their tribute to the king and 
their offerings to the gods. 

Years passed by and Maikoha became weak 
and ill. The eepa people of the upper valley 
had always sent driving rains and cold winds 
down the valley, and Maikoha had cared little 
for them; but the old man at last went into the 
days of death feeling a chill which struck to 
his very heart. On his death-bed he called his 
daughters and commanded them to listen care- 
fully and to obey his words, saying: '^ When I die, 
bury my body close to the waters of our pleasant 
stream. A tree will grow from that burial- 
place. This tree v/ill be to you for kapa, from 
which you will make all things good for clothing 
as well as covering when you sleep or are ill. 
The bark of this tree is the part you will use." 

When death came, the daughters buried their 
father by the running water. After a time a 
tree grew from the grave. The daughters saw 
that it was a new tree such as they had never 
seen before. It was not tall and large, but threw 
out a number of small, spreading branches. 
This was the wauke* tree. 

*Broussonetia papyrifera. 



64 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

The daughters with great fear drew near to 
this monument which was over their father's 
grave. They beUeved it was a gift from the 
aimiakua, the ghost-god, into which they 
supposed the spirit of their father had been 
changed. 

Reverently they touched the tree, broke off 
some of the branches, stripped off the bark, and 
pounded and pounded until the pieces were 
fastened together in a rude kind of cloth. Thus 
they found kapa, *^ the beaten thing," and learned 
how to make it into small and large pieces and 
out of these fashion such clothing as met their 
need. 

Wherever they cut or broke the branches of 
this new tree the broken pieces took root, or, 
if the fragments were caught by the swift-flow- 
ing stream, they were tossed on the bank or car- 
ried and scattered over the plain, and wherever 
they went they found a place to plant themselves 
until they grew even to the sea. 

Branches were carried to the other islands; 
thus the wauke became a blessing to all the 
people. This tree under the name "ante," 
which is the same as wauke, was a blessing to 
many Polynesians, from Tahiti to New Zealand. 

In after years other trees, such as the mamaki,* 
the maa-loa and po-ulu, were found to have bark 

*Pipturus Albidus. 



THE LEGENDARY ORIGIN OF KARA 6$ 

from which kapa could be made; but the old 
people said, ^^From the wauke we get the best 
kapa for fine, soft clothing/' 

Maikoha became the chief aumakua, or an- 
cestor-god, of the Hawaiian kapa-makers, and 
has been worshipped for generations. When 
they planted the wauke branches, or shoots, 
prayers and incantations and sacrifices were 
offered to Maikoha. Before branches were cut 
and placed in bundles to be carried to a field set 
apart for kapa-making, the favor of Maikoha 
was again sought. 

One of the daughters of Maikoha, whose name 
was Lau-hu-iki, became the aumakua of all 
those who pounded the prepared bark, for to 
her was given the power of finding kapa in the 
bark of the wauke-tree, and she had the power of 
teaching how to pound as well as bless the labor 
of those who worshipped her. 

The other daughter, Laa-hana, was also wor- 
shipped as an aumakua by those who used 
especially marked clubs while beating the bark 
into patterns or marked lines, for they said she 
learned how to scratch the clubs with sharks' 
teeth so that marks would be left in the pounded 
sheets. She was also able to teach those who 
worshipped her to mark figures or patterns on 
the pounded kapa. 

Thus Maikoha and his daughters became the 



66 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

chief gods of the kapa-makers; but other ances- 
tral gods were also found from time to time as 
some new step was taken in perfecting the art. 

Ehu, a man, was made the aumakua of kapa- 
dyers because he learned how to dip the cloth 
in dyes and give it color. He discovered the 
red dye in the blood of the kukui* tree; therefore 
prayers were offered to him and sacrifices laid 
on his altar when the kapa-maker desired to 
color some of the work. 

A small corner in a house in the kapa-field 
usually had a very small pile of stones called 
*'the altars." Here sm^all offerings of leaves or 
fruit could be placed while the worshipper chanted 
his prayer. 

Kapa-dyers searched forests for trees and 
plants which could give life-blood for different 
dyes. The sap of these plants was carefully 
put in bamboo joints and carried to the place 
where the pounders sang and worked. 

Offerings of leaves and fruits and flowers were 
made to Ehu from time to time while the dyes 
were being collected as well as when they were 
used to color the kapa. 

Sometimes the sheets were spotted by sprink- 
ling colors over them. Sometimes they were 
marked in lines and figures by using bamboo 
splints or bamboos with ends pounded into brush- 

•Aluerites Moluccana. 



THE LEGENDARY ORIGIN OF KAPA 67 

like fibres. Stone cups were kept in the kapa- 
fields for the dye and the marking-splint. 

Sometimes torn-up pieces of dyed kapas were 
pounded up with new sheets, producing a mottled 
effect. White kapas of the best texture were 
used in the temples to cover the gods during cer- 
tain parts of the temple ceremonies. They were 
also used to mark a strict tabu. When kapa was 
laid on an object, it meant that it was not to be 
touched under pain of punishment by the guard- 
ing aumakua. Fastened to a staff and placed 
in a path, it meant that this path was tabu. It 
was in this way that tabu standards were placed 
around the temples. 

A kapa dipped in a black dye was kept for the 
death covering, especially for those of very high 
rank. 

Sometimes the perfumes of sweet flowers or 
the oil of such trees as the iliahi* (sandalwood) 
were pounded into the kapa while it was being 
made. The perfumes were made in this way. 
The sweet-smelling things were placed in a cala- 
bash and covered with water. Hot stones were 
put in the water and the fragrance drawn out 
of the plants. The water was boiled away 
until the perfume became very strong. This 
was done with the sweet-scented flowers of 
the niuf (coconut) and of the lau-hala,t and 

• Santalum Freycinetianum. t Cocos nucif era. 
\ Pandanus adoratissimus. 



68 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

the wood of the iliahi and other fragrant 
plants. 

When the kapas were perfumed, they were 
dried inside a house so that the fragrance should 
not be lost. 

Sometimes the kapas were well scraped with 
pieces of shell or rubbed with stones, then were 
rolled in dirt and put in a calabash and well 
soaked for a long time. When these kapas 
were washed, scraped and pounded again, they 
became very soft. Often the kapa-maker would 
take these sheets of kapa and spread them over 
a layer of cold, wet, fresh-water moss, leaving 
them all night for the dew to fall upon. These 
kapas became very bright and shining. Some- 
times finished kapas were oiled so that they be- 
came excellent protectors from the wet and cold 
of heavy mists and rains. These oiled kapas 
were frequently varnished by being rubbed with 
eggs. Spider eggs were considered the best for 
this purpose. 

In the early time a flat stone was used upon 
which to pound out the sheets of kapa, but 
blocks of wood and long, heavy sticks were 
found to give the best results. These were 
called kua-kuku. A block cut in a certain way 
was very much liked by the women, for it gave 
back a soft sound with the rhythmic beat of 
the mallets, accompanied by their own chants 



THE LEGENDARY ORIGIN OF KAPA 69 

and incantations to Maikoha or one of the other 
aumakuas. 

Hina, the mother of the demi-god Maui, 
was the great kapa-maker of the legends of 
the ancient Hawaiians. It is said that she still 
spreads her kapas in the sky. They are the 
beautiful clouds of all colors, sometimes piled 
up and sometimes lying in sheets. When fierce 
winds blow and lift and toss the cloud kapas and 
roll off the stones which Hina has placed on them 
to hold them down, or when she throws off the 
stones herself, the noise of the rolling stones is 
the thunder which men hear. 

When Hina rolls the cloud sheets together, 
the folds glisten and flash in the light of the sun; 
thus what men call lightning is the sunlight 
leaping from sheet to sheet of Hina's kapas in 
cloudland. 



70 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

X 

CREATION OF MAN 
The Kamakau Legend 

Note: Mauka * of Honolulu rises a cloud-capped range. 
Beyond this is the place where Kamakau, a native his- 
torian of about sixty years ago, says that the Hawaiian 
gods created the first inhabitants of these islands. The 
story has been repeated in several Hawaiian papers and 
with embellishments, was adopted by Judge Fomander 
and mentioned in notes in his work "The Polynesian 
Race." Parts of the story are evidently old Hawaiian, 
but the part which describes the creation of man is 
thoroughly Biblical with the addition of a few touches 
of the imagination. 

"The sky is established. 
The earth is established. 
Fastened and fastened. 
Always holding together, 
Entangled in obscurity, 
Near each other a group of islands 
Spreads out like a flock of birds. 
Leaping up are the divided places. 
Lifted far up are the heavens. 
Polished by striking, 
Lamps rest in the sky. 
Presently the clouds move. 
The great sun rises in splendor, 
Mankind arises to pleasure, 
The moving sky is above.'* Hawaiian Chant, 
•Toward the mountain. 



CREATION OF MAN 71 




C BV.«0*»t>»* 1 tov<.(\ 



IBB^^U, Ka-ne, Lono and Kanaloa were the 
nli^^ first gods made. 

'^ ^ ^ The gods had come from far-off un- 
known lands. They brought with them the 
mysterious people who live in precipices and trees 
and rocks. These were the invisible spirits of 
the air. 

The earth was a calabash. The gods threw the 
calabash cover upward and it became the sky. 
Part of the thick ''flesh'' became the sun. 
Another part was the moon. The stars came 
from the seeds. 

The gods went over to a small island called 
Mokapu, and thought they would make man to 
be chief over all other things. Mololani was the 
crater hill which forms the little island. On the 
sunrise side of this hill, near the sea, was the 
place where red dirt lay mixed with dark blue 
and black soil. Here Ka-ne scratched the dirt 
together and made the form of a man. 



72 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

Kanaloa ridiculed the mass of dirt and made 
a better form, but it did not have life. Ka-ne 
said, ^'You have made a dirt image; let it be- 
come stone." 

Then Ka-ne ordered Ku and Lono to carefully 
obey his directions. They were afraid he would 
kill them, so at once they caught one of the 
spirits of the air and pushed it into the image 
Ka-ne had made. 

When the spirit had been pushed into the body, 
Ka-ne stood by the image and called, *^Hiki 
au-E-ola! E-ola!'' C^ I come, live! live!") 

Ku and Lono responded *Xive! live!" Then 
Ka-ne called again, ^'I come, awake! awake!" 
and the other two responded, "Awake! 
awake!" and the image became a living man. 

Then Ka-ne cried, "I come, arise! arise!" 
The other gods repeated, "Arise ! arise ! " and the 
image stood up — a man with a living spirit. 
They named him Wela-ahi-lani-nui, or "The 
great heaven burning hot." 

They chanted, giving the divine signs attending 
the birth of a chief: 

Note: Fomander, in his book "The Polynesian Race," 
says that Lono brought whitish clay from the four ends 
of the world, with which to make the head, but there is 
no foundation for this statement in the legends. This 
must have been a verbal statement made to him by 
Kamakau. 



CREATION OF MAN 73 

"The stars were burning. 
Hot were the months. 
Land rises in islands, 
High surf is like mountains, 
Pele throws out her body (of lava). 
Broken masses of rain from the sky, 
The land is shaken by earthquakes, 
Ikuwa * reverberates with thunder." 



The gods took this man to their home and 
nourished him. When he became strong he 
went out to walk around the home of the gods. 
Soon he noticed a shadow going around with his 
body. It walked when he walked, and rested 
when he rested. He wondered what this thing 
was, and called it ^^aka,^' or '^shadow." 

When he slept, Ku, Ka-ne and Lono tore open 
his body, and Ka-ne took out a woman, leaving 
Ku and Lono to heal the body. Then they put 
the woman by the side of the man and they 
were alike. 

Wela-ahi-lani-nui woke and found a beautiful 
one lying by him, and thought: '^This is that 
thing which has been by my side, my aka. The 
gods have changed it into this beautiful one." 
So he gave her the name *'Ke-aka-huli-lani" 
(The-heaven-changed-shadow). These were the 
ancestors of the Hawaiians and all the peoples 
of the islands of the great ocean. 

•Ikuwa was the month of thunder and lightning. 



74 



LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 



It must be remembered that there are many 
other Hawaiian legends which mention other 
first men and women as ancestors of the Hawai- 
ian people. 




CHIEF WITH WONDERFUL SERVANTS 75 



XI 

THE CHIEF WITH THE WONDERFUL 
SERVANTS * 




m 



CERTAIN chief who lived on the 
island of Oahu in the very misty 
memory of long, long ago thought he 
would travel over his lands and see their condi- 
tion. So pleased was he that he boasted of his 
wide domain when he met a fellow-traveller. 
The man said, ^'1 can see the lands of Wakea 
and Papa and they are larger and fairer than 
these fine places of yours.'' Then they decided 
to go together to find that wonderful land of 
the gods. 

Soon they passed a man standing by the way- 
side. The chief asked him what he was doing. 
The man replied: ^^I am Mama-loa [The very 
swift]. I am waiting for the sun to rise, that I 
may run and catch him.'' They all waited until 
the Sim appeared and started to rise above the 
island. The man ran very fast and caught it, 
tied it, and held it as a prisoner for a time. 

Then the three travelled together — the chief, 
whose name was Ikaika-loa (The very strong), 

•From tbe Kuokoa of 1862, Hawaiian newspaper. 



76 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

and the man who could see clearly a long dis- 
tance, whose name was Ike-loa (The-far- 
sighted), and Mama-loa. In a little while they 
saw two men sleeping by the path. One was 
shivering with cold; his name was Kanaka-make- 
anu (Man-who-dies-in-the-cold). The other was 
burning as if over a fire; his name was Kanaka- 
make-wela (Man-who-dies-in-the-fire). They 
warmed one and cooled the other, and all went 
on together. 

They came to a field for rat-shooting, and found 
a man standing with bow and arrow, shooting 
very skilfully. His name was Pana-pololei 
(The-straight-shooter). They asked him to go 
to the lands of Wakea and Papa, so he journeyed 
with them. By and by they found a man lying 
by the path with his ear to the ground. The 
chief asked him, '^What are you doing?'* He 
looked up and said, "I have been listening to the 
quarrel between Papa and Wakea.'' The man 
who was listening to their harsh words was 
Hoo-lohe-loa (The-man-who-could-hear-af ar-off) . 
They all journeyed on until they entered a land* 
more beautiful than any they had ever seen 
before. 

The watchmen of that country saw six fine- 
looking men coming and with them a seventh 

*The legends say that one of the homes of Wakea and Papa was the 
splendid country around Nuuanu Valley and Honolulu. 



CHIEF WITH WONDERFUL SERVANTS 77 

man, superior in every way. The report of the 
coming of these strangers was quickly sent to 
the chiefess who ruled the land under Wakea 
and Papa. She commanded her chief to take 
his warriors and meet these strangers and bring 
them to her house. There they were enter- 
tained. While they slept the chiefess gathered 
her people together until the enclosure around 
the houses was filled with people. 

In the morning Ikaika-loa, the chief, said to 
the chiefess: ^'I have heard that you propound 
hard riddles. If I guess your riddles you shall 
become my wife." The chiefess agreed, took him 
out of the house, and said, ^'The man who is 
now my husband is standing by the door of the 
house of Wakea and Papa; where is the door of 
that house?" The chief turned to Ike-loa and 
secretly asked if he could see the door of Papa's 
house. He looked all around and at last said: 
"The door of that house is where the trunk of 
that great tree is. If you are strong and can 
break that tree you can find the door, because it 
is in one of the roots of that tree." 

Then the chief went out to that tree and lifted 
and twisted the bark and tore away the wood, 
opening the door. 

After this the chiefess said: "There are three 
dogs. One belongs to our high chief, Wakea; 
one to his wife. Papa; and one is mine. Can 



78 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

you point out the dog belonging to each of us?'' 

The chief whispered to his servant Hoo-lohe- 
loa, ^'Listen and learn the names of the dogs." 
So the man who could hear clearly put his ear 
to the ground and heard Papa telling her ser- 
vants: *'This black dog of Papa's shall go out 
first, then the red dog of Wakea. The white 
dog belonging to the chiefess shall go last." 
Thus the chief learned how to name the dogs. 

When the black dog leaped through the door 
the chief cried out, ''There is the black dog be- 
longing to Papa." 

When the red dog followed he said, ''That is 
the red dog of Wakea." 

Then came the white dog, and the chief cried 
out, "That white dog belongs to us, O Chiefess." 

After this they prepared for a feast. The 
chiefess said: "Very far is the sweet water we 
wish. You send one of your men and I will 
send one of my women each with a calabash for 
water. If your man comes back first while we 
eat, we will marry." 

The chief gave a calabash to Mama-loa and he 
made ready to go — a woman with her calabash 
standing by his side. 

At the word they started on their race. The 
man ran swiftly, thinking there was no one 
among all men so swift as hfe, but the woman 
passed him and was leaving him far behind. 



CHIEF WITH WONDERFUL SERVANTS 79 

The chief called Pana-pololei, the straight 
shooter, and told him they needed his skill. He 
took his bow and arrows and shot. Far, far the 
arrow sped and whizzed just back of the head 
of the woman. She was so startled that she 
stumbled and fell to the ground and the man 
passed by. 

After a time the chief said to Ike-loa, the far- 
sighted, '^How are they running now?'' 

The servant said, ''The woman is again 
winning." 

The chief said to his rat-hunter, "Perhaps you 
have another arrow?'' and again an arrow sped 
after the swift runners. It grazed the back of 
the woman and she fell. Mama-loa passed her, 
rushed to the spring, filled his calabash and 
started back. But the woman was very swift, 
and, quickly dipping her calabash, turned and 
soon passed the man. An arrow sped touching 
the head of the woman, and she fell forward, 
breaking the calabash and spilling the water; 
but she leaped up and saved a little water and 
hastened after the man who had sped past her. 

''Ah, how she runs! She flies by the man as 
they are ahnost at the end of their race,'' ex- 
claimed Ike-loa. 

Then the chief called to his bowman: "O 
Pana-pololei! Perhaps you have another ar- 
row?" The bowman shot a blunt arrow, strik- 



8o LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

ing the woman's breast, and she fell, out of 
breath, losing all the water from her broken 
calabash. 

The chief took the calabash from his man 
and poured water into a coconut-cup and gave 
to the chiefess to drink. 

When the woman came the chiefess asked why 
she had failed. The woman replied: *'I passed 
that man, but something struck me and I fell 
down. This came to me again and again, but I 
could not see anything. At last I fell and the 
calabash was broken and all the water lost, and 
this man won the race/' 

Meanwhile Mama-loa was being ridiculed by 
the other servants of the chief. He asked: 
** Why do you laugh at me? Did you not see my 
victory?" 

They laughed the more, and said: *^Ka! If 
we had not aided you, you would have been 
defeated.'' Then they told him how he had 
been watched by the far-sighted one and aided 
by the arrows of his friend. 

The chiefess told the chief that she had one 
more test before the marriage could take place. 

She said: *'In this land there are two places, 
one very hot and one very cold. If you can send 
men to live in these two places we will marry." 

Then the chief said to Kanaka-make-anu, 
"You die in the cold, but perhaps you can go 



CHIEF WITH WONDERFUL SERVANTS 8l 

to the very hot place for the chiefess/' And 
Kanaka-make-wela who suffered from heat he 
asked to go into the cold. The two servants 
said: *^We go, but we will never return. These 
are our natural dwelling-places/' 

There were no more riddles to solve, so the 
chief and chiefess married and lived royally in 
that beautiful land of the gods. 








82 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

XII 

THE GREAT DOG KU 

KU-ILIO-LOA 

the dog-man, decided to come down 
from the clouds and visit mankind, so 
he assumed the form of a little dog and 
went around almost unnoticed. 

Ku saw a group of three rainbows moving 
from place to place or resting for a long time 
above the home of a high chief. Sometimes the 
rainbows went up to the forests of ohia and 
kukui-trees on the mountain-side. Sometimes 
they rested over the deep pools made by the 
waterfalls of the swiftly descending mountain 
streams. Most frequently the beautiful colors 
were arched over a small grove of trees aroimd a 
bathing-pool protected on two sides by steep 
ledges of rock over which diverging streams 
poured their cool waters which rose from the 
shadows and rippled away through the little 
valley toward the sea. On the remaining side 
of this sequestered nook was a sunny beach 
of black sand, back of which the trees opened 
their promise of refreshing shade. 



THE GREAT DOG KU 83 

Here Na-pihe-nui, the daughter of the high 
chief, came daily with her company of maidens 
to bathe and sport in the water and then let 
the afternoon hours pass in rest and pleasant 
conversation. 

One day while diving into the pool from a shelf 
on the rocky ledge one of the girls saw something 
moving on the shore. She called to her com- 
panions and with them hastened to the place 
where their clothes had been thrown down. 
Here they found a little white dog lying on the 
kapa mantle of the princess. 

For a time they played with the little stranger 
and were very much delighted with his unusual 
intelligence. He gambolled around them in great 
delight, obeying the call of one after the other, 
but showing very marked preference for the 
princess. When the maidens returned home they 
took the little dog with them and cared for him. 

The high chief, Polihale, was interested in the 
peculiar powers possessed by this strange dog. 
Perhaps he thought that it was under the control 
of some spirit. His suspicions were in some way 
aroused and the dog was watched. Soon the 
chief learned that this was a man of marvellous 
ability, who could appear as a dog or a man at 
his own pleasure. Then the chief called his re- 
tainers and ordered them to kill this dog. They 
gathered stones and clubs and tried to surround 



84 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

it, but it dashed into the woods and made its es- 
cape. It was the great dog Ku, who had seen the 
three rainbows and followed them to the bathing- 
pool and then, having seen the princess, had de- 
termined to find an opportunity to carry her away 
as his wife. This premature discovery drove him 
away before he could accomplish his purpose. 

Then Ku changed himself into a man of fine 
appearance and came boldly to the high chief's 
home demanding the princess in marriage, but 
the chief, warned by the omens as studied by his 
soothsayers, refused. 

Ku was in great anger and threatened to kill 
the chief's people, and to destroy the protectors of 
the princess, but the high chief drove him away. 

A dream came to the high chief, in which he 
saw the strange man coming as a great dog. The 
next morning as he looked toward the mountains 
he saw this same large dog stretching itself out 
of a cave on the mountain-side; so he knew 
that this dog with magical powers would be a very 
diflScult enemy to overcome. 

The chief soon learned that Ku was catching 
his people one by one and devouring them and 
decided to take final issue with his enemy. 

Selecting a cave he hid all the women of his 
family in it, placing the princess in their care. 
They took provisions with them and prepared for 
a long siege. Water could be found in the cave 



THE GREAT DOG KU 85 

itself. Stones were placed before the opening so 
that the enemy would find it hard to enter. 

Then the high chief and his followers waged 
war against Ku, the dog-man, but Ku was very 
strong and overthrew his pursuers when they 
closed in around him. Many times he killed 
some of the chief's people and carried their bodies 
away to feast upon them. He was also very 
swift in his motion, rapidly passing from place 
to place. Sometimes he fell like a flash of light- 
ning upon a group of his foes and then in an in- 
credibly short time he would make an attack in 
a far distant place. 

The high chief became desperate and offered 
sacrifices to his gods and secured charms from 
his priests. Incantations and prayers were pre- 
pared against Ku. 

At last a terrific battle was fought and Ku was 
overpowered and beaten to the ground. Still he 
fought fiercely, but the hard wooden spears 
pierced him and the heavy clubs broke his bones, 
until he lay a crushed and bleeding mass at the 
feet of his conquerors. Then they cut his body 
in two pieces, throwing one piece to one side and 
the other to a place some distance away. Then 
the power of the priests was invoked and the 
two parts of the body of Ku-ilio-loa became two 
great stones which have been objects of venera- 
tion among the Hawaiians for many years. 



86 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

Ku stretches his form along the mountains 
and sometimes reveals himself as the great dog 
among the myriad shapes which the changing 
clouds are ever assuming. Sometimes he is seen 
in the clouds of Oahu, and then again his form 
is in the skies of other islands. 

Note: The Hawaiian legends frequently unite 
animal and human forms and characteristics in 
one individual, like the centaurs of Roman 
mythology. In some cases the man always 
carries with him a part of the animal shape. 
The legends of shark-men place the shark mouth 
between the shoulders of the man, and he is com- 
pelled to always wear a cloak to conceal his de- 
formity. 

Usually, however, the legends give to the 
human being the power to change at will into 
the peculiar animal form with which he has 
afi&nity without carrying with him any marks 
of his previous shape. In the Pele legends a 
chief appears as a beautiful bird and later as a 
handsome man, and marries the chiefess. When 
the hog-man Kamapuaa, however, courts Pele 
he is compelled to hide his pig-like deformities 
under a covering of kapa cloth. 

The legend of the great dog Ku is somewhat 
reversed from the usual order. Ku, the dog, 
was given the power to change himself into a man 



THE GREAT DOG KU 87 

and return into his animal form whenever he 
wished. 

The legend is unique in that it unites a beau- 
tiful nature-myth with a history-myth of fero- 
cious cannibalism. 

Ku-ilio-loa is a magic dog who could be large 
or small at will. He roamed over the mountains 
and could be seen at night stretching himself 
from one peak to another or from the mountain 
height above his home in a cave below. This is 
evidently a nature-myth. The clouds on the 
mountains are ever multiform. Sometimes the 
dim mist in the moonlight rears its dog-shaped 
head over the sloping hills and stretches its 
shadowy length up to the faintly outlined peaks 
above; and sometimes the small cloud, like a dog 
at rest, lies quietly in the skies above the moim- 
tain forest. It was a beautiful outgrowth of 
Hawaiian imagination. 

The same nature-myth has been applied to the 
cloud forms of lower Manoa Valley, a suburb of 
Honolulu. This cloud-myth was known as the 
story of Poki, the wonder-dog. He was often 
seen at night especially by those who had stood 
on the sacred bell rock of Kamoiliili. This 
rock rang with a sweet, strong tone when struck 
sharply. It had the power of giving clear vision 
to the one who stood on it and absorbed its mys- 
terious qualities. The visitor must stand on the 



88 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

rock and utter his wish to see Poki. Then would 
his eyes be opened and the wonder-dog of the 
mountains of Oahu would reveal himself stretched 
along the mountains and silvered by the moon- 
light. Some of the later Hawaiians say that this 
wonder-dog of Oahu is the spirit of the chief Boki, 
who with his wife Liliha owned the lower part 
of the valley of Manoa. Boki in the early days 
of missionary labor in the Hawaiian Islands be- 
came desirous of seeing the world and adding to 
his riches; therefore he fitted out two ships 
for foreign trade and sailed away. The ship in 
which Chief Boki sailed was never heard from. 
Hence arose the saying, ^^We will do this or that 
when Boki comes back.'' 

But some of the people changed the thought of 
the old legend and claimed that his spirit returned 
and now reveals himself as the dog watching over 
his loved valley. Magic powers were given to 
Poki — so that he could stretch himself along the 
mountains, his hind feet on the mountain ridge 
and his head in the valley below. He could also 
extend himself to Nuuanu Valley and sometimes 
spread his body over all the island. Probably 
the only real connection of Chief Boki with the 
wonder-dog Poki is the similarity of names. But 
the chief has been almost forgotten. Even the 
wonder-dog is known only by the story-tellers, 
while the night clouds, sometimes darkened by 



THE GREAT DOG KU 89 

falling rain, sometimes enriched by the halo of 
lunar rainbows, and sometimes glorified by the 
silver moonlight, continue to stretch from peak 
to peak along the mountains and watch over all 
the various forms of life in the valleys below. 

Ku-ilio-loa, the great dog Ku, was destined to 
have another series of legends grow up about his 
memory besides those suggested by the adoring 
imaginations of nature lovers. 

It is difiicult to analyze the influences which 
brought the beautiful nature-myth down to the 
degradation of the sensuous life of a brute. Per- 
haps the simplest thought is the best, and the 
problem is solved by supposing that a chief by 
the name of Ku became imbued with cannibalis- 
tic desires and when driven away from his fellow- 
men made his home among the almost inaccessi- 
ble peaks where cloud-myth and cannibal-legend 
could very easily be interwoven with each other 
as the memory of his horrible cannibal life be- 
came dimly connected with the mysterious cloud- 
forms among which he died. 




90 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 




XIII 
THE CANNIBAL DOG~MAN 

Note: The Menehunes were the fairies of Hawaii. The 
goblins and gnomes of valley or woodland were called the 
eepa people, while monsters having the power of appearing 
in different kinds of bodies were called kupuas. These 
usually had cruel and vindictive characters and were 
ready to destroy and devour any persons they could catch. 
There were, however, many kupuas of kindly spirit who 
gave watchful care to the members of their own families. 

The Menehunes were temple-builders, makers of great 
fish-ponds and even highways. They made canoes, built 
houses, and did many of the pleasant things fairies are 
always doing. Their good works are to be found to this 
day on all the different islands of the Hawaiian group. 

PS^A-HANAI-A-KE-AKUA (The-adopted- 
nlf^J child-of-the-gods) was the chief whose 
* ^ ^ ^ followers fought with the dragon-god, 
Kuna, for a canoe in Nuuanu Valley. He was 
a friend of the fairies — the Menehune people. 
When he had grown into young manhood and 
was going to have a temple of his own, with his 



THE CANNIBAL DOG-MAN 91 

own gods to worship, the Menehunes heard 
about the plan for the walls and altars and de- 
termined to build that temple for the chief. 

As soon as the night shadows had fallen over 
the mountains back of Honolulu the Menehunes 
were called together by their luna, or leader. 
The stones necessary for the heiau (temple) 
walls were pointed out. Flat-sided stones were 
selected for raised places and altars, smooth 
stones were called for from the seashore to be 
laid down as the temple floor. Bamboo and 
ohia sticks were to be brought with which to 
build platforms for sacrifices, such as the bodies 
of hirnian victims. All parts of the temple 
building* even to the thatched houses for the 
priests and chiefs were portioned among the 
little people. 

In one night the work was finished, a feast 
was eaten, and the Menehunes had scattered in 
the shadows of the forest thickets. 

Kahanai took possession of his temple and 
dedicated it with the tabu service and ceremonies. 
This meant that a tabu of silence or a tabu for- 
bidding work of any kind would be announced, 
and all the people of the district or place in which 
the temple was located would obey that tabu 
until the dedication ceremonies were all over and 

*This heiau (temple) was on the road to Pauoa Valley, now Pacific 
Heights. 



92 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

the words '^Noa, ua noa" were used, meaning 
that the tabu was over and everything could be 
freely done as before. 

The name given to this temple was Ka-he-iki. 

In this temple the chief placed his friend and 
guardian, Kahilona, who had cared for him 
from his babyhood, as his priest and teacher. 
Kahilona was the priest of this temple. Kahi- 
lona prepared this chant for the temple building. 

" Gone is the little house, 

The little house, 
Gone is the large house, 

The large house, 
Gone is the short house. 

The short house, 
Gone is the little house, 
From Maiuu to Maaa-e. 
Let this be commenced. 

Build, with the soft beat of the drum. 
With the murmur of the voice of the gods. 
With the low whine of the dog, 
With the low grunt of the pig. 
And the soft whispers of men. 

Here am I, Kahilona, 

The teacher of prayer. 

Proclaimed by Kahilona.'* 

A kupua who was a dog-man overthrew the 
government of Kahanai and became the ruling 
power between Nuuanu Valley and the sea. 
His own house and heiau were at Lihue, — a place 



THE CANNIBAL DOG-MAN 93 

toward the Waianae Mountains. This kupua 
never attacked or injured any members of the 
family of the very high chief or king of the 
island Oahu, but he was a cannibal, and many 
of the people were killed and eaten by him. He 
could appear at will either as a man or a dog. 

His name was Kaupe. After he had eaten 
some of the people of Oahu he w^nt over the 
water to eat the men of Maui, and then went 
on to Hawaii, where he captured the son of one 
of the high chiefs and carried him back to Oahu, 
putting him in the temple at Lihue to keep him 
there until the time came for a human sacrifice. 
Then the boy was to be killed and laid on a 
platform before the gods. 

The father of that boy left Hawaii to follow 
him to Oahu, thinking there might be some way 
of saving his son. If he failed he could at least 
die with him. When the father came to Oahu 
he very quietly landed and looked for some one 
to give him aid. After a time he met Kahilona, 
the caretaker of the temple of the Menehunes, 
and told him all his trouble. 

The priest taught the father the proper incan- 
tations by which he could get his boy away from 
the magic power of Kaupe, and save both him- 
self and his boy. Then he also taught the father 
a prayer which he was to use if Kaupe should 
learn of their escape and pursue them. 



94 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

At night he approached the temple at Lihue 
repeating the chant which Kahilona had taught 
him. He watched for the signs which the priest 
had told him would indicate the place where 
the boy was kept, and followed them carefully. 
He continually repeated his chant until he came 
inside the walls and found the dog asleep guard- 
ing the boy. The father slipped in, cautiously 
aroused the boy, and unfastened the cords which 
bound him. Then they quietly passed the dog, 
guarded by the incantation: 

"O Ku! O Lono! O Ka-ne! O Kanaloa! 
Save us two. Save us two." 

Thus they passed out of the temple and fled 
toward the temple Ka-he-iki. 

While they were running a great noise was 
heard far behind them. The dog had been 
awakened, and had discovered the escape of 
his prisoner. Then rushing like a whirlwind 
aroimd the temple he found the direction in 
which they had fled. This was the path natu- 
rally taken by those leaving Oahu to escape to 
Hawaii. The great dog only waiting to learn the 
course taken, pursued them on the wings of the 
wind. 

The two chiefs fled, but saw that it was im- 
possible to outrun the dog. Then the father 
uttered the prayer which the priest had said 




MOANALUA NEAR HONOLULU 



THE CANNIBAL DOG-MAN 95 

would save them if Kaupe followed. They ran 
with increased strength and swiftness, but the 
dog would soon be upon them. Again the 
father repeated the prayer: 

"OKu! OLono! O Ka-ne! O Kanaloa! 
By the power of the gods, 
By the strength of this prayer, 
Save us two. Save us two." 

Then they found a great stone at Moanalua 
imder which they were able to hide. 

The dog had only one thought, which was 
that the father and son would return to Hawaii 
as speedily as possible aided by their gods, so 
he rushed to the beach, leaped into the air and 
flew to Hawaii. 

The chiefs went to the temple Ka-he-iki, and 
were gladly welcomed by the priest, Kahilona, 
who taught them the prayers by which they 
could overcome and destroy the dog-man. 

After they were fully instructed they returned 
to their home on Hawaii and waged war against 
their enemy. They obeyed the directions of the 
priest and finally killed Kaupe. 

But the ghost of Kaupe was not killed. He 
returned as a ghost-god to the highest part of 
Nuuanu Valley, where in his shadow body he 
can sometimes be seen in the clouds which 
gather around the mountain-tops or come down 



96 



LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 



the valley. Sometimes his cloud-form is that of 
a large dog, and sometimes he is very small, but 
there his ghost rests and watches over the lands 
which at one time he filled with terror. 

Kahilona, the priest of the temple Ka-he-iki, 
became the ancestor of one of the greatest of the 
priestly clans of the islands — the Mo-o-kahuna 
(the priests of the dragon) class of Oahu, noted 
for their ability to read the signs of sky and sea 
and land. 





XIV 

THE CANOE OF THE DRAGON 

[BS^OA-TREES, out of which the finest and 
^If^J most enduring calabashes of the old Ha- 
^^ ^ ^ waiians were made, grew near the 
ocean's sandy shore, but the koa-trees from which 
canoes were carved and burned were, according 
to some wise plan of Providence, placed on 
rough precipitous mountain-sides or on the ridges 
above. 

The fierce winds of the mountains and the habit 
of bracing themselves against difiiculties made 
the koa-trees cross-grained and slow in growth. 
The koa was the best tree of the Hawaiian Islands 
for the curled, twisted, and hard-grained wood 
needed in canoes which were beaten by over- 
whelming surf waves, rolled over sandy beaches, 
or smashed against coral or lava reefs. 

From the time the canoe was cut in the moun- 
tains and was dragged and rolled over lava beds 
or sent crashing down steep moimtain-sides to 
the time it lay worn out and conquered by the 
decay of old age it was always ready to meet the 
roughest kind of life into which its maker and 
owner could force it to go. 



98 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

The calabash used in the plams and in the 
mountains came from a tree grown in beautiful 
lines by the sea. The canoe came from the hard 
mountain-koa far from its final workshop. There 
were gods, sacrifices, ceremonies, priests and even 
birds in the rites and superstitions of the canoe- 
makers. Kupulupulu was the god of the koa 
forest. Any wanderer in the woods was in the 
domain of that god. It was supposed that every 
rustling footstep was heard by most acute ears, 
and every motion of the hand was watched by 
the sharpest eyes. Dread of the unseen and un- 
heard made every forest rover tremble until he 
had made some proper offering and uttered some 
effective incantation. 

The ceremony and the wages of the priest who 
went up the mountain to select a koa-tree for 
canoe-cutting were like this: First he found 
a fine-appearing tree which he thought would 
make the kind of canoe desired. Then he took 
out his fire-sticks and rubbed rapidly until he had 
sparks of fire in the wood-dust of his lower stick. 
He caught the fire and made a burning oven 
(imu), heated some stones, cooked a black pig 
and a chicken, and prepared food for a feast, 
and then prayed: 

"O Kupulupulu— the god! 
Here is the pig, 
Here is the chicken, 
Here is food. 



THE CANOE OF THE DRAGON 99 

O Kupulupulu! 

O Kulana wao ! 

O Ku-ohia laka! 

O Ku waha ilo ! 

Here is food for the gods." 

The aumakuas, or spirits of ancestors, were 
supposed to join with the gods of the prayer in 
partaking of the shadow of the feast, leaving the 
substance for the canoe-makers. 

After the offering and prayer the priests ate 
and then lay down to sleep until the next day. 
In the morning after another feast they began to 
cut the tree. 

David Malo, in his "Hawaiian Antiquities," 
said that the priest took his stone axe and called 
upon the female deities of the canoe-cutters 
thus : 

"0 Lea and Ka-pua-o-alakai! 
Listen now to the axe. 
This is the axe which is to cut the tree for the canoe." 

Another account says that when the canoe 
priest began to cut the tree and also as long as 
they were chopping it down they were talking 
to the gods thus: 

"O Ku Akua! O Paapaaina! 
Take care while the tree is falling, 
Do not break our boat, 
Do not let the tree smash and crack." 



ICO LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

When the tree began to tremble and its leaves 
and branches rustle, a tabu of silence was en- 
joined upon the workmen, that the tree itself 
might be the only one heard by the watching gods. 

When the tree had fallen a careful watch was 
made for Lea, the wife of Moku-halii, the chief 
god of the canoe-carvers — those who hollowed 
out the canoe. 

It was supposed that Lea had a double body — 
sometimes she was a human being and sometimes 
she appeared as a bird. 

Her bird body was that of the Elepaio, a little 
bird covered with speckled feathers, red and 
black on the wings, the woodpecker of the Hawai- 
ians. 

*' When she calls she gives her name *E-le-pai-o, 
E-le-pai-o, E-le-pai-o!' very sweetly." 

If she calls while the tree is being cut down 
and then flies gently down to the fallen tree and 
runs up and down from end to end, and does 
not touch the tree, nor bend the head over, strik- 
ing the wood, then that tree is sound and good 
for a canoe. 

But if the goddess strikes the tree here and there 
it is rotten and of no use, and is left lying on the 
ground. 

David Malo, as translated by Dr. Emerson, 
says: 

"When the tree had fallen the head priest 



THE CANOE OF THE DRAGON lOl 

mounted the trunk, axe in hand, and called out in 
a loud voice, ' Smite with the axe, and hollow the 
canoe! Give me my malo!' 

The priest's wife would hand him a white 
ceremonial malo with which he girded himself — 
then walked along the tree a few steps and called 
out in a loud voice, ^ Strike with the axe, and hol- 
low it! Grant us a canoe!' 

Then he struck a blow on the tree with the 
axe. This was repeated until he reached the point 
where the head of the tree was to be cut off. 
Here he wreathed the tree with the ieie vine, 
repeated a prayer, commanded silence, and cut 
off the top of the tree. 

This done, the priest declared the ceremony 
performed and the tabu lifted. 

Then the priests took their stone adzes, hol- 
lowed out the canoe on the inside, and shaped it 
on the outside until in its rough shape it was 
ready to be dragged by the people down to the 
beach and finished and polished for its work in 
the sea." 

Ka-hanai-a-ke-Akua was a chief residing near 
Kou. He lived in the time when gods and men 
mingled freely with each other and every tabu 
chief was more or less of a god because of his 
high birth. 

His priests went up Nuuanu Valley to a place 
on the side where forests covered a small valley 



102 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

running into the side hills of the larger and more 
open valley. Great koa-trees fit for canoe-mak- 
ing were found in this forest. However, this 
part of the valley belonged to the eepa people — 
the deformed or ill-shaped gnomes of woodland 
or plain. Sometimes they seemed to be crippled 
and warped in mind as well as in body. They 
could be kind and helpful, but they were often 
vindictive and quarrelsome. There were also 
ferocious mo-o,or dragon-gods, watching for prey. 
Travellers were destroyed by them. They some- 
times appeared as human beings, but were always 
ready to become mo-os. 

One of these gods came down to the place 
where the priests were cutting the koa canoe for 
the high chief. He watched the ceremonies and 
listened to the incantations while the tree was 
being cut down. He tried to throw obstacles in 
the way of the men who were steadily breaking 
chips from the tree-trunk. He directed the force 
of the wind sweeping down the valley against 
them. He sent black clouds burdened with 
heavy driving rain. He made discouraging 
omens and sent signs of failure, but the priests 
persevered. 

At last the tree fell and was accepted. It was 
speedily trimmed of its branches, cut roughly to 
the required shape and partly hollowed out. 
Then coconut ropes and vines were fastened 



THE CANOE OF THE DRAGON 103 

around it, and the people began to pull it down 
the valley to the harbor of Kou. 

As they started to drag the log over rough 
lava ridges outcropping along the valley-side 
they found their first effort checked. The log 
did not move down into the valley. Rather, it 
seemed to go up the hillside. The god caught 
one end and pulled back. Another mighty effort 
was put forth and the canoe and the god slipped 
over the stones and partly down the hillside. 
But the dragon-god braced himself again and 
made the canoe very heavy. He could not hold 
it fast and it came down to the men. It was 
very difficult to drag it through the forest of the 
valley-side or the thickets of the valley, so the 
men pulled it down into the rough, rocky bed of 
the little stream known as Nuuanu. It was 
thought that the flowing water would help the 
men and the slippery stones would hinder the god. 

Down they went pulling against each other. 
The god seemed to feel that the struggle under 
such conditions was hopeless, so he let go of the 
canoe and turned to the flowing water. 

Beautiful waterfalls and cascades abound all 
along the course of this mountain stream. It is 
fed by springs and feathery waterfalls which 
throw the rainfall from the tops of the moun- 
tains far down into the valley. 

The god hastened along this water course, 



104 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

stopped up the springs, and turned aside the 
tributary streams, leaving the bed of the river 
dry. Then he went down once more, caught the 
canoe, and pulled back. It was weary, discour- 
aging work, and the chief's people became very 
tired of their struggle. The night fell when 
they were still some distance from the sea. 

They had come to a place known as Ka-ho-o- 
kane.* In this place there were sharp turns, 
steep banks and great stones. Here the dragon- 
god fought most earnestly and wedged the log 
fast in the rocks. 

The task had become so difficult and it was so 
dark that the high chief allowed his priests to 
call the people away, leaving the log in the place 
where the last struggle was made. It was a gift 
to the mo-o, the dragon, and was known as '^The 
canoe of the dragon-god." It is said that it lies 
there still, changed into a stone, stuck fast among 
the other huge stones among which the water 
from the mountains finds its way laughing at 
the defeat of the canoe-makers. 

•This place is in the heart of modern Honolulu back of the old 
Kaumakapili church site. 




'^nn^ 



THE WONDERFUL SHELL 105 

XV 
THE WONDERFUL SHELL 



^^^EAR Niolapa, on the eastern side of 
IlkY^H^ Nuuanu Valley, is the stone where 
— ^^^ Kapiini rested when he came after the 
shell known as the Kiha-pu. Kapuni was a 
child of Kauhola, who was said to have been a 
chief, who was born, was walking and had grown 
up, had become a father, a grandfather, and had 
died, all in one day. Kapuni was born in Waipio 
Valley, and was placed in the temple Pakaaluna 
and was made a god. 

Two gods came from Puna. They were 
Kaakau and Kaohuwalu. They waited above 
Hakalaoa looking down into Waipio. There they 
saw Kapimi leaping. He touched a branch of a 
kukui-tree and fell down. He leaped again and 
touched the short top branches of the kukui and 
fell down. 

Kaakau said to Kaohuwalu, '^Suppose we get 
Kapuni to go with us as our travelling com- 
panion, one with us, in fierce storms, or in the cold 
heavy dews of night." 

Kaohuwalu assented, and they arose and went 
down. They called to Kapuni, asking him to 



Io6 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

leap up. He tried again and again and always 
fell back. 

Kaakau caught him as he fell and cut off part 
of his body because he was too heavy, then he 
could fly to the sky and return again. 

Kaakau asked him how he was succeeding. He 
replied, **Very well indeed; I am swift in flight.^' 
Then Kaakau said, ^^Will you go with us on a 
journey?'' Kapuni said, "Yes." 

They went away to the lands of Kahiki and 
returned to Kauai. From there they heard the 
wonderful voice of a shell sounding from the 
temple Waolani in Nuuanu Valley. 

Kapimi said, "What is that thing which makes 
such a soimd?" 

Kaakau said, "That is a shell which belongs 
to the eepas [gnomes], the people of Waolani, 
Oahu." 

"I want that shell very much,'' said Kapuni. 
Kaakau told him that the task would be very 
difficult and dangerous, for the shell was guarded 
by watchmen from hill to hill, from the sea to the 
summit of the valley, and along all the pathways 
to the neighboring villages. 

The gods, however, crossed the channel to 
Oahu, and rested at night above Kahakea. Here 
was a temple above Waolani. It was upon a hill. 
In it was a noted drum. The name of that temple 
was Pakaaluna. Kapuni told his friends to stay 



THE WONDERFUL SHELL 107 

there waiting for him. If he did not return be- 
fore the red dust of the dawn was in the sky they 
would know he was dead. If he returned he 
would have the shell. 

Then he approached the prison enclosure out- 
side the temple. Here he waited by a rock for 
all the watchmen on the high places around the 
temple to fall asleep. When the stars arose in 
the heavens above Nuuanu and all were sound 
asleep he entered the temple and took the shell. 
He flew away and found his companions. 

They made a great jump and leaped to Kalaau 
Point. As they flew over the water to Molokai 
the shell touched the top of a wave and sang 
with a clear voice. 

The god of Waolani Temple heard the shell 
singing, looked, and found that it had been 
stolen. He rushed from the temple, flew over 
the Nuuanu precipice and out into the channel 
from which he had heard the sound. 

Kapuni hid among the waves, the shell 
ceased its song. The god of Waolani went 
back and forth over the water, but could find 
nothing. 

After the god gave up the search Kapuni went 
on to Molokai and then to Maui and Hawaii. As 
it flew across the channel between Maui and 
Hawaii the shell struck a high wave and broke 
off a corner. 



I08 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

When they were on the hills of Hawaii they 
found the temple built at Hainoa. There the 
gods of Hawaii were gathered together. 

Kiha was high chief of Hawaii at that time, and 
had been dwelling in Waipio Valley, cultivating 
his plant, planting awa, and building a temple 
for his gods. 

When that temple was finished and the tabu 
of silence lifted from all the surrounding country 
he went to Kawaihae and built another temple, 
establishing another altar for his gods. He 
placed the usual tabu upon all the land aroimd 
Kawaihae. 

But the tabu was broken by the sound of that 
shell blown by the gods of the Hainoa Temple. 
He was very much troubled, but the gods were 
too strong for him. At last help came to him 
from Puapualenalena (The yellow flower), a dog 
belonging to a master who had left his home 
in Niihau some time before. 

Puapualenalena was seeking his master, and 
found him on the uplands of Hawaii. 

The dog excelled in his skill as a thief, steal- 
ing pigs, chickens, tapa cloth, all kinds of prop- 
erty for his master. 

The master told that dog to get the tabu awa 
roots of the king, which were growing on the 
hillsides of Waipio Valley. 

When that place was stripped, he sent the dog 



THE WONDERFUL SHELL 109 

to the precipices of Waimanu, and he took nearly 
all that was there. 

Then the king commanded his people to watch 
the awa fields and catch the one who was stealing 
his growing awa. 

They began their watch. When the night was 
almost over and the dawn was touching the sky 
they found the thief. These men followed the 
thief and caught his master in a cave, all wrinkled 
from drinking much awa. 

They took the master and the dog to the king 
Kiha as prisoners, and the king planned to have 
them steal that shell which troubled him. If 
they failed they should be put to death. This 
was the sentence of the king upon his prisoners. 

The master talked with his dog, and told him 
all the word of the king. They planned to pay 
for the theft of the awa, but not by the death of 
their bodies. 

The dog went out to win the shell from the 
gods under cover of the night, when the darkness 
was great and all kinds of shell voices were 
mingling with other voices of the woodland and 
wilderness. 

Then came the softly resonant voice of that 
shell blown by the gods. According to an ancient 
chant, '^The song of Kiha-pu calls Kauai,'' 
meaning the song is listened to from far distant 
Kauai. 



no LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

The dog ran swiftly while the sound of the shell 
was great, and hid in a corner of a stone wall of 
the heiau. He waited and waited a long time. 
The dawn was almost at hand. Then the 
watchers fell into deep sleep. 

The dog crept softly inside, seized the shell 
and slipped it away from its place, then leaped 
over six walls of the heiau, but touched the 
seventh and outside wall. Then the shell sang 
out loud and clear. 

The gods were aroused. They followed, but 
the dog leaped into a pool of water and con- 
cealed himself and the shell while the gods 
dashed by. They searched the road toward 
Waipio, then rushed toward the Kona district. 

The dog flew from the pond down the preci- 
pice of Waipio Valley and laid the shell at the 
feet of Kiha, the king of Hawaii. 

The dog and his master were given a high 
place in the affections of the king. 

The shell was renow^ned for its wonderful 
sound, and could call the warriors of the king 
from any distance when the king caused it to 
be blown. It was known as Kiha's shell, the 
Kiha-pu. 

This shell was carefully preserved by the 
chiefs of Hawaii from that ancient time. Gen- 
eration after generation it was eared for. In the 
time of Kamehameha III. it was kept in his 



THE WONDERFUL SHELL 



III 



palace. It was among the treasures of King 
Kalakaua, and now has its resting-place in the 
hands of ex-Queen Liliuokalani in Honolulu. 

When Kapuni died, his bones, worshipped as 
one of the gods, were kept at Kaawaloa until 
the tabu and the temples were overthrown. 





112 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

XVI 
THE GHOST DANCE ON PUNCHBOWL 

Ka Hula O Na Aumakua 

PUNCHBOWL lies back of Honolulu. It 
is an extinct volcano. Inside the 
crater rim is a basin whose sides are 
grass-covered, with groups of trees here and 
there. The little houses and small gardens of 
squatters show that there is no longer any fear 
of subterranean activity. A large part of the 
city of Honolulu is built on what were once the 
brown, desolate sides of the volcano sloping 
down to the sea. 

Punchbowl is one of the last attempts of the 
goddess of fire to retain her hold on the island 
of Oahu. The great ridge of mountains which 
forms the backbone of the island is a gigantic 
remnant of volcanic action, but the craters out 
of which this vast mass of lava was poured died 
centuries before the foothill craters threw out 
the last black sand of Punchbowl or uplifted the 
coral and the white sea sand and shells of Leahi 
Diamond Head. 

In the indefinite long ago, Kakei was the moi, 
or high ruling chief, of Oahu. He was enter- 



THE GHOST DANCE ON PUNCHBOWL 113 

prising and brave. He not only perfected him- 
self in the use of the spear, the war-club and the 
sling-stone, but he rallied around him the restless 
young chiefs of the districts which acknowl- 
edged his supremacy. His court was filled with 
men who gave and received blows, who won and 
lost in the many games, who were penniless to- 
day and rich to-morrow, and yet took all that 
came as a matter of course. Kakei called these 
younger chiefs together and told them to return 
to their districts for a time and make preparations 
for a voyage and a battle. They must see that 
many new canoes were made and the best of the 
old ones repaired and repolished. They must 
select the bravest and best of their retainers 
and have them well armed and well provisioned. 
He hinted that it might be a long journey, there- 
fore they had better provide strong mat sails 
for all the canoes. It might be many days, there- 
fore the provisions should be such as would last. 
At once the young men with great joy hastened 
to their homes to obey the will of their chief. 

It was impossible to keep the people from 
talking about the expedition. Excitement pre- 
dominated. The shrill voices of the women 
shouted the news from valley to valley. The 
hum of unwonted industry was heard over all 
the island. Imagination was keenly intent to 
discover the point threatened by the proposed 



114 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

excursion. Night after night the people dis- 
cussed the various enemies of their king, and his 
prospects for successful battle with them, or 
they talked of the enlargement of his kingdom 
by the acquisition of Molokai or the increase of 
riches by a foray along the coasts of Hawaii. 
They prophesied great victories and much spoil. 
Months passed by and all the preparations were 
complete. A splendid body of warriors were gath- 
ered around their high chief. The large flotilla 
of canoes was launched, the sails set, and the 
colored pennants placed at the end of each mast. 
The young chiefs were brilliant in their bright 
yellow and red war capes and hideous with the 
war masks which many of them proudly wore as 
they leaped into their canoes and shouted ''Aloha" 
to the friends whom they were leaving. 

As soon as the boats had left the shore the 
chief turned to the north rather than to the south, 
as all had been led to believe would be the course. 
Sails and paddles were both used freely. The 
winds of the seas and the strong arms of the 
oarsmen vied with each other in hastening the 
fleet toward the island of Kauai. Night crept 
over the waters, but the bright stars were un- 
clouded and the path over the waters was as 
straight by night as it had been by day. 

The morning star was shining and the dawn 
was painting the clear sky with wonderful tints 



THE GHOST DANCE ON PUNCHBOWL 115 

of pearl when Kakei and his army of warriors, 
already on the land, raised their war-cry and 
assaulted the people of the village of Waimea. 

Catching war-club and spear the chief of 
Waimea rushed out of his house, raising his war- 
cry. His men, half-awake, confused and dazed 
by the sudden attack, attempted to aid him in 
resisting the invaders. The battle was short 
and decisive. In a very little while many people 
were killed. The thatched houses were set on 
fire and a great destruction wrought. 

Kakei had ordered his warriors to seize the 
canoes and the women and children and what- 
ever plunder in calabashes, mats, kapa cloth, 
stone implements and feather cloaks could be 
had, and gather all together on the beach. 

The captured canoes and their own great fleet 
were filled and the return safely made to Oahu. 
Kakei and his warriors sailed around the island 
to Honolulu Harbor. There the beach was cov- 
ered with the new riches and the captive women 
and children. The king ordered a great feast to 
be prepared on the slopes of Punchbowl. Fish in 
abundance were caught, pigs and chickens were 
slaughtered, many ovens with red-hot stones were 
made ready, and huge calabashes of awa prepared. 

Kakei and his victorious warriors gathered 
aroimd the poi-bowl, while the hula-girls danced 
most joyously before them. 



Il6 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

Suddenly the earth shook under them, the poi- 
bowls rocked as if tossed on the waters of the 
sea, the feast which had been spread before 
them moved from place to place as if made of 
things of life. The rocky cliflFs of Punchbowl 
began to separate and come crashing down the 
hillside in great masses. The people fled in 
every direction, leaving a part of their number 
crushed under the falling stones. 

Then came another mighty earthquake. The 
side of Punchbowl opened and a flood of lava 
poured out, mixed with clouds of steam and 
foul gases. Down over the place where the 
feast was spread on the luau mats poured the 
fire. The feast became the food of the fire- 
goddess. Then a wonderful thing appeared 
above the flowing lava, in the midst of the 
clouds hovering over the crater. A nimiber of 
the aumakua of Kauai were seen in a solemn 
and stately dance. Back and forth they moved 
to the rhythm of steady peals of erupting 
gases. The clouds swayed to and fro, while 
the ghosts moved back and forth among them. 
The spirits of the ancestors had come to pro- 
tect the women and children of the households 
whose friendly deities they were. It was the 
ceremonial, sacred dance of the spirits, to be 
followed by swift punishment of those who had 
brought such great injury to Kauai. 



THE GHOST DANCE ON PUNCHBOWL 117 

But while the ghosts continued their awful 
dance, the terrified king and his warriors hastily 
prepared a propitiation. The captured women 
and children were called to the beach. All the 
plunder brought from Waimea was hastily col- 
lected and placed in the hands of the captives. 
The kahunas, the priests of the king, were sent 
to the slope above Punchbowl Hill to cry out 
to the aumakuas that all the reparation possible 
would be made at once. 

The warriors placed the captives and their 
goods in canoes, and started back to Kauai. 
As the canoes passed out of sight the earth- 
quakes ceased. No longer was there the thunder 
of imprisoned gases leaping to liberty. The 
fires died away, and the flood of lava cooled. 
The aiunakuas had accepted the offered re- 
pentance of the king and his warriors. 

It is said that the fire never again returned to 
that crater or to the island of Oahu. 

Note: Curious and weird tales are told con- 
cerning these two small, picturesque volcanoes 
of the city which in tropical luxuriance is one 
of the most beautiful spots in the Pacific Ocean. 
Near the foot of Diamond Head, and not far 
from the caves which burrow its sides, was the 
heiau (temple) which was one of the last to be 
glutted with human sacrifices. Its altars were 



Il8 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

loaded with bodies of dead men when Kame- 
hameha brought his warriors from Hawaii and 
Maui and with much bloodshed conquered Oahu 
and unified the Islands under one government. 
On the brow of Diamond Head, fronting the sea, 
are the remains of a small fish-god temple 
within the walls of which the less cruel offerings 
were made to Kuula to gain his favor in secur- 
ing food from the sea. Battles were fought and 
noted deeds of daring done both east and west 
of this prominent crater. 

The summit of Punchbowl is crowned with a 
bold, frowning pile of perpendicular rocks. On 
the top of this pile peculiar human sacrifices are 
said to have been offered from time to time. 

The natives whisper a story that one of the 
last kings of the Kamehameha family, in a 
drunken fit, so seriously injured his son that 
ultimately death resulted. The crazed father 
planned an expiation. The word was quietly 
passed that no one was to move far away from 
his home that night. There was an air of mys- 
tery around the city. What happened was 
never accurately known, but a fire burned on 
the high rock, and the smoke fell around it that 
night. It was hinted that a drunken sailor might 
easily have disappeared while staggering through 
the dark shadows, and be but little missed. 

But back in the olden time there was laid the 



THE GHOST DANCE ON PUNCHBOWL 119 

foundation for a legend which in these later days 
becomes a good folk-lore tale. Many of the 
Hawaiians of to-day believe in the continual 
presence of the aumakuas, the spirits of the 
dead. In time past the aumakuas were a pow- 
erful reality. An ancestor, a father or a grand- 
father, a makua, died. Sometimes he went to 
Po, the under-world, or to Milu, the shadow- 
land, or to Lani, the Hawaiian heaven, and 
sometimes he remained to be a torment or a 
blessing to his past friends. 

In Samoa, Turner says that the aumakuas 
were supposed to come back from the under- 
world and enter into the bodies of those they 
wished to trouble. They might find a home in 
the stomach or heart or bowels, but wherever 
they found an abiding-place the spirit produced 
disease and death. If a man was dying, his neigh- 
bors desired to be on good terms with him and 
did all they could to make him comfortable. 

This is very much like the power of praying to 
death among the Hawaiians. The spirit of some 
dead person was supposed to be the real destruc- 
tive agent in putting to death the one prayed 
against. The aumakua (the ancestor spirit) was 
more powerful than any living human force. 

In Tahiti the oro-matuas (aumakuas) were very 
malignant, cruel and relentless in punishing those 
whoinciurred their displeasure. In all the different 



120 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

groups of islands, however, the ghosts were suj> 
posed to belong to particular families and to exert 
their mysterious power in caring for these house- 
holds. Many Hawaiian families have stories 
which are still firmly believed, of special favors 
granted to individuals in time of danger. A 
school-boy in Hilo told the writer how his grand- 
father was saved when his canoe upset, and how 
he was safely brought to the land by the shark 
into which the family aumakua had entered. The 
story is told of a man captured in battle, tied up 
in green ti leaves ready to be put into the pit full 
of red-hot stones, and then set free by the owl in 
which the protector of his family was dwelling. 
"People sometimes gave the bodies of their 
relatives to sharks in order that their spirits 
might enter into the sharks, or threw them into 
the crater of Kilauea, that the spirits might join 
the company of volcanic deities and afterward 
befriend the family.'' 




THE BIRD-MAN OF NUUANU VALLEY I2I 




XVII 

THE BIRD-MAN OF NUUANU VALLEY 



^^^AMAKA was a noted man of the time of 
JjlslQjR Kalaniopuu. He was born on Kauai, 
, ^«fL I but journeyed forth to find some one 
whom he would like to call his lord. He was 
skilled in managing land (Kalai-aina), an orator 
(Kakaolelo), and could recite genealogies (Kaau- 
hau). He excelled in spear- thro wing (lonoma- 
kaihe), boxing or breaking the back of his 
opponent (lua), leaping or flying (lele) and as- 
tronomy (kilo) . All this he had learned on Kauai. 
SaiUng from Kauai he landed on Oahu. In 
Nuuanu Valley he met Pakuanui, a very skilful 
man, a fine orator and boxer. He was the father 
of Ka-ele-o-waipio, a noted man of the time of 



122 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

Kamehameha, the maker of a chant for the mis- 
sionaries at Kailua. 

Toward the upper end of Nuuanu Valley, in 
a place Ka-hau-komo, where spreading hau* 
trees cluster on both sides of the road, Namaka 
and Pakuanui had a contest. They prepared 
themselves for boxing and wrestling, and then 
faced each other to show their skill and agility. 

This man from Kauai appeared like a rain- 
bow bending over the hau-trees, arched in the 
red rain, or in the mist cloud over the Pali, as 
he circled around Pakuanui. He was Uke the 
ragged clouds of LanihuU, or tiie wind rushing 
along the top of the Pali. His hands were like 
the rain striking the leaves of the bushes of 
Malailua. He was so swift and strong that he 
could catch Pakuanui in any part of his body. 

The man of Oahu could not hold Namaka. 
That Kauai man was as slippery as an eel, and 
as hard to hold as certain kinds of smooth, 
slimy fish, always escaping the hands of 
Pakuanui. But he could strike any place. The 
hill of the forehead he struck, ridge of the nose 
also. There was no place he could not touch. 
He rushed like a whirlwind around the man. 
However, he did not try to kill Pakuanui. He 
wished only to display his skill. 

Pakuanui was very much ashamed and angry 
because he could not do anything with Namaka, 

* Paritium tiliaceus. 




THE MISTY FALLS 



THE BIRD-MAN OF NUUANU VALLEY 123 

and planned to kill him when they should reach 
the Pali (precipice of Nuuanu Valley), to which 
they were going after the boxing contest. 

When they came to Kapili at the top of the 
Pali, a very narrow place, Pakuanui said to 
Namaka, *' You may go before me/' 

Namaka passed by on the outside and Paku- 
anui gave him a kick, knocking him over the 
Pali, expecting him to be dashed to pieces on 
the rocks at the foot of the precipice. 

But Namaka flew away from the edge of the 
Pali. The people who were watching said: '^He 
went off. He flew off from the Pali like an lo 
bird, leaping into the air of Lanihuli, spreading 
out his arms like wings. When the strong wind 
twisted and whirled, Namaka was lifted like a 
kite by the wind, and hung among the kukui 
branches below a little waterfall which is on the 
western side of the precipice w^here a rivulet starts 
on its way to the ocean.'' Then he leaped to the 
groimd and went away to Maui. At Pohakuloa, 
on Maui, Namaka leaped down some precipices, 
showing his strength and skill. 

When Namaka came to Hawaii, Kalaniopuu 
was king. He liked him very much and hoped 
to have him as his lord. 

Note: The older natives sometimes recall this wonderful 
flight of the man from Kauai who was skilful in leaping 
and flying from the edge of precipices. 



124 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

However, another man from Kauai was a 
favorite with the king. He knew Namaka, and 
was afraid that he might be supplanted when 
the king should learn about Namaka's wonder- 
ful powers, so he gave no welcome to Namaka, 
but turned him away. 

Namaka went to Waimea and found Hinai, 
the high chief of that place, a near relative to 
Kalaniopuu. He told Hinai what he could do, 
and was made a favorite of the high chief. 

He taught Hinai how to be very skilful in all 
his arts, and especially in leaping from precipices. 
He hoped that Hinai's skill would be noised 
abroad, and the king would hear and wish to 
have the teacher come to live with him. 

Hinai became very proficient, and even won- 
derful, in standing on the edge of high precipices 
and leaping down unhurt. These places have been 
pointed out to the young people by their parents. 

When the favorite of Kalaniopuu heard that 
there was a very skilful man from Kauai stop- 
ping with the high chief of Waimea, he told the 
king that an enemy from Kauai was in Waimea. 

The king listened to this man and then he 
charged Namaka with trying to make his rela- 
tive Hinai so skilful in leaping down high places 
that he could always escape any attempt to in- 
jure him. 

The favorite said: **This man, Namaka, can 



THE BIRD-MAN OF NUUANU VALLEY 125 

fly over mountains and streams and precipices 
and plains and not be killed. He is a rebel 
against your kingdom." 

Kalaniopuu commanded some men to go and 
kill this stranger from Kauai, telling them to 
begin war upon Hinai if he opposed their attempt 
to take the stranger. 

Namaka had prepared himself for escape by 
digging in the ground and making a pit under 
his house, with a tunnel and an opening some 
distance away. 

The warriors from Kalaniopuu surrounded the 
house, thinking he was inside. They consulted 
about the best method of killing him, and de- 
cided to burn him up. They set fire to the 
house and destroyed it and went away, believ- 
ing this stranger had been burned to death. 

Namaka easily escaped from Hawaii and 
crossed over to Maui, where he remained some 
time, but he found no one whom he wished to 
take as his lord. Then he went to Oahu, and 
at last returned to his home on Kauai. 

There prophesying about the chiefs of Hawaii, 
whom he had considered superior to those on 
Maui and Oahu, but not equal to the royal 
family of Kauai, he spoke thus: ^' There is no 
ruling chief in Hawaii who can step his foot on 
the tabu sand of Kahamaluihi [Kauai]. There 
is no war canoe or divine chief who can come 



126 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

to Kauai unless a treaty has been made between 
the two ruling chiefs/' 

The natives call this a prophecy of the skilled 
chief who could fly from Nuuanu Pali, and 
think it was fulfilled because Kamehameha never 
conquered Kauai, but secured it by concession 
from its king. 

Note: History repeats itself the world over. Recently the 
bird-men visited Hawaii and gave exhibitions of fl3dng in 
aeroplanes. According to old Hawaiian traditions, how- 
ever, there were bird-men in Hawaii before the white man 
came, as the foregoing translation from one of the old 
legends illustrates. 




THE OWLS OF HONOLULU 



127 




XVIII 
THE OWLS OF HONOLULU 

PUEO 

HERE are three celebrated ^^owV locali- 
ties in the suburbs of Honolulu, one in 
Manoa Valley, the 
second near the foot of Punch- 
bowl Hill, and one at Waikiki. 

In Manoa the owl-god lived, 
and at Waikiki the famous 
"battle of the owls'' was 
fought. 

Manoa Valley is one of the 
most beautiful rainbow valleys 
in the world. The highest 
peaks of the island of Oahu 
are near the head of the valley. 
The winds which blow down 
the Pacific Ocean from the 
northeast strike these moun- 
tain-tops. Each cool breeze 
leaves its burden of moisture 
in a fleecy cloud to fall down 
the mountain-side into the val- 
ley. So cloud follows cloud, 




128 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

descending the slopes of the foothills in gentle 
rain. 

Almost all day long the valley is open to the 
sun, which, looking on the luxuriant verdure and 
clinging mist, sends its abundant blessing of 
penetrating light. Rainbows upon rainbows are 
painted on the steep precipices at the head of 
the valley. There are arches and double arches 
of exquisite beauty, smashed fragments of scat- 
tered color, broad pillars of glorious fire blazing 
around green branches of ghost-like trees, great 
bands of opal hues lying in magnificent masses 
on the hillside, and lunar rainbows almost cir- 
cular outlined in soft prismatic shades in the 
time of the full moon. 

When showers creep down the valley one by 
one, rainbows also chase each other in matchless 
synmietry of quiet, graceful motion. Sometimes 
the mist in the doorway of the valley has be- 
come so ethereal that splendid arches hang in the 
apparently clear sky without cloud support. 

It is no wonder that from time immemorial 
the Hawaiians have made the valley the home 
of royal chiefs, with the rainbow-maiden as 
their daughter. The story of this child of the 
skies is told in the legend Ka-hala-o-Puna (The 
sweet-scented hala-flower of Pima). Woven into 
this legend is also the legend of the owl-god 
of the family to which this maiden belonged, 



THE OWLS OF HONOLULU 129 

for his home as well as hers was in Manoa 
Valley. 

Almost in the middle of the valley is a hill 
on which many years ago a temple was built 
and dedicated as the home of the owl-god Pueo. 
The hill now bears the name ''Pu-u'' (hill), 
*'Pueo" (owl)— '^Puu-pueo/' or ^^The hill of 
the owl." 

It was from this temple that the owl-god 
rescued the rainbow-maiden three times when 
she had been thrice killed and buried by her 
faithless suitor, a chief of Waikiki. 

Ka-hala (the hala flower) had followed this 
chief almost to the lower end of the valley, but 
she became weary. The angry chief struck her 
with a bunch of hala nuts, killed her, and buried 
her under a mass of leaves and dirt near the 
spot called Aihualama. Pueo, the owl-god, had 
carefully watched the journey of this one of his 
people. When he saw her struck down he 
hastened to the spot swiftly, dashed aside the 
dirt, pulled out the body, and carried it in his 
claws back to the head of the valley, where by 
charms and incantations he healed her wounded 
head and restored her to life. Soon her beauty 
came back to her and surrounded her so that 
she walked as if encompassed with rainbows. 
Again the Waikiki chief, to whom she had been 
affianced by her parents, came after her. Again 



130 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

he became angry because she grew weary 
in the new way by which he led over a 
high ridge dividing Manoa from a neighboring 
valley. 

A second time he seized a bunch of hala nuts 
swinging on their long stems, and with this as 
a club struck her on the head, killing her. He 
covered the body with ferns and vines and went 
away. The watching owl-god took the body 
tenderly, cared for it, and restored it to hfe. 
Once more the radiance of a divine chiefess 
rested in rainbows around the girl and her 
Manoa Valley home. 

The third time the chief called for her she 
obeyed with trembling, and followed him up 
the almost precipitous sides of Manoa Valley, 
over ridges, across valleys and turbulent streams 
until they came to the ridge by the Waolani 
Temple in Nuuanu Valley. There he killed her 
and buried her. But Pueo scratched away the 
leaves and dirt, and again gave her life. 

At the head of Manoa Valley are many water- 
falls pouring down the precipices. The longer 
and most feathery of these falls are said to be 
the tears of Ka-hala as she suffered from the 
attacks of the faithless chief of Waikiki. 

Pueo, the owl-god, was also Pueo-alii, or "king 
of owls." He had kahunas (priests) who con- 
sulted him by signs, and the aumakuas, or ghost 



THE OWLS OF HONOLULU 131 

gods, sometimes in oracles. He was thought to 
be a chief leading his army of ghosts along the 
hillside below the Puuhonua Temple.* 

From his own residence on Owl's Hill he gov- 
erned all the valley, apparently with much wis- 
dom. It was said that one of the natives in 
the valley displeased him. He captured the 
man and at once ordered the death penalty, 
calling him a rebel. The man secured the atten- 
tion of the owl-god for a moment, and presented 
the plea that he ought to be permitted to say 
something for himself before he was punished. 
This seemed reasonable. The execution was de- 
layed; the man proved that he was innocent of 
the charge against him. The owl-god estab- 
lished a law that a person must be proved guilty 
before he could be condemned and punished. 
This came to be a custom among the Hawaiians 
as the years passed by. 

The legends say that the fairy people, the 
Menehunes, built a temple and a fort a little 
farther up the valley above Puu-pueo, at a place 
called Kukaoo, where even now a spreading hau- 
tree shelters under its branches the remaining 
walls and scattered stones of the Kukaoo Temple, 
It is a very ancient and very noted temple site. 
Some people say that the owl-god and the fairies 
became enemies and waged bitter war against 

* This place is now the site of the Castle Home. 



132 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

each other. At last the owl-god beat the drum 
of the owl clan and called the owl-gods from 
Kauai to give him aid. 

They flew across the channel in a great cloud 
and reinforced the owl-god. Then came a fierce 
struggle between the owls and the little people. 
The fort and the temple were captured and the 
Menehunes driven out of the valley.* 

Kapoi 

The second legendary owl locality is found 
near the foot of Punchbowl HilLf 

Honolulu as the name of even a village was 
not known. Apparently there were very few 
people living along the watercourse coming down 
Nuuanu Valley. It may have been that even 
Kou, (the ancient name for Honolulu,) had not 
been heard. At any rate, the seacoast was a 
place of growing rushes and nesting birds. A 
dry heated plain almost entirely destitute of 
trees extended up to the foothills. Taro patches 
and little groves of various kinds of trees bordered 
each watercourse. The population was small 
and widely scattered. There was a legend of a 
band of robbers which infested this region. It 
was almost a ^^ desolate place.*' 

• Another legend says that the battle was between the little people 
and Kualii, a. noted chief of Oahu, of comparatively recent date, 
t Head of Fort Street. 



THE OWLS OF HONOLULU 133 

Down Pauoa Valley dashes a stream of beauti- 
ful clear water. This passes along the eastern 
edge of a small extinct crater known as Punch- 
bowl Hill, whose ancient name was Puu-o-wai-na. 
The water from this stream was easily diverted 
into choice taro patch land. Here not far from 
the upper end of Fort Street at Kahehuna lived 
a man by the name of Kapoi. 

His grass house was decaying. The thatch was 
falling to pieces. It was becoming a poor shelter 
from the storms which so frequently swept down 
the valley. Kapoi went to the Kewalo marsh 
near the beach, where tall pili grass was growing, 
to get a bundle of the grass to use for thatching. 
He found a nest of owFs eggs. He took up his 
bundle of grass and nest of eggs and returned 
home. 

In the evening he prepared to cook the eggs. 
With his fire-sticks he had made a fire in his 
small imu, or oven. An owl flew down and sat 
on the wall by the gate. Kapoi had almost 
finished wrapping the eggs in ti leaves and was 
about to lay them on the hot stones when the 
owl called to him: ''O Kapoi! Give me my 
eggs.'' 
Kapoi said, ''How many eggs belong to you?" 
The owl replied, ''I have seven eggs.'' 
Then Kapoi said, ''I am cooking these eggs 
for I have no fish." 



134 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

The owl pleaded once more : ' ^ O Kapoi ! Give 
me back my eggs." 

''But/' said Kapoi, ''I am already wrapping 
them for cooking.'* 

Then the owl said: "O Kapoi! You are heart- 
less, and you have no sorrow for me if you do 
not give back my eggs." 

Kapoi was touched, and said, ''Come and get 
your eggs." 

Because of this kindness the owl became 
Kapoi's god, and commanded him to build a 
heiau (temple) and make a raised place and an 
altar for sacrifice. The name of the place 
where he was to build his temple was Manoa. 
Here he built his temple. He laid a sacrifice 
and some bananas on the altar, estabHshed the 
day for the tabu to begin and the day also when 
the tabu should be lifted. 

This was talked about by the people. By 
and by the high chief heard that a man had built 
a temple for his god, had made it tabu and had 
lifted the tabu. 

Kakuhihewa was living at Waikiki. He was 
the king after whom the island Oahu was named 
Oahu-a-Kakuhihewa (The Oahu of Kakuhihewa). 
This was the especial name of Oahu for centuries. 
Kakuhihewa encouraged sports and games, and 
agriculture and fishing. His house was so large 
that its dimensions have come down in the 



c 
> 
c 

> 




THE OWLS OF HONOLULU 135 

legends, about 250 x 100 feet. Kakuhihewa was 
kind, and yet this offence of Kapoi was serious 
in the eyes of the people in view of their ancient 
customs and ideas. Kakuhihewa had made a law 
for his temple which he was building at Waikiki. 
He had established his tabu over all the people 
and had made the decree that, if any chief or 
man should build a temple with a tabu on it 
and should lift that tabu before the tabu on the 
king's temple should be over, that chief or 
man should pay the penalty of death as a 
rebel. 

This king sent out his servants and captured 
Kapoi. They brought him to Waikiki and placed 
him in the king's heiau Kapalaha. He was to 
be killed and offered in sacrifice to the offended 
god of the king's temple. 

KUKAEUNAHIO 

The third legendary locality for the owl-gods 
was the scene of the '^battle of the owls.'* This 
was at Waikiki. Kapoi was held prisoner in the 
Waikiki heiau. Usually there was a small, four- 
square, stone-walled enclosure in which sacrifices 
were kept until the time came when they should 
be killed and placed on the altar. In some such 
place Kapoi was placed and guarded. 

His owl-god was grateful for the return of the 



136 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

eggs and determined to reward him for his kind- 
ness and protect him as a worshipper. In some 
way there must be a rescue. This owl-god was 
a ^'family god," belonging only to this man and 
his immediate household. According to the 
Hawaiian custom, any individual could select 
anything he wished as the god for himself and 
family. Kapoi's owl-god secured the aid of 
the king of owls, who lived in Manoa Valley 
on Owl's Hill. The king of owls sent out a 
call for the owls of all the islands to come and 
make war against the king of Oahu and his war- 
riors. 

Kauai legends say that the sound of the drum 
of the owl-king was so penetrating that it could 
be heard across all the channels by the owls on 
the different islands. In one day the owls of 
Hawaii, Lanai, Maui and Molokai had gathered 
at Kalapueo.* The owls of Koolau and Kahi- 
kiku, Oahu, gathered together in Kanoniaka- 
pueo.f The owls of Kauani and Niihau 
gathered in the place toward the sunset — Pueo- 
hulu-nui (near Moanalua). 

Kakuhihewa had set apart the day of Ka-ne — 
the day dedicated to the god Ka-ne and given his 
name— as the day when Kapoi should be sac- 
rificed. This day was the twenty-seventh of 

•A place east of Diamond Head, 
t A place in Nuuanu Valley. 



THE OWLS OF HONOLULU 13; 

the lunar month. In the morning of that day 
the priests were to slay Kapoi and place him 
on the altar of the temple in the presence of the 
king and his warriors. 

At daybreak the owls rallied around that 
temple. As the sun rose, its light was obscured. 
The owls were clouds covering the heavens. 
Warriors and chiefs and priests tried to drive 
the birds away. The owls flew down and tore 
the eyes and faces of the men of Kakuhihewa. 
They scratched dirt over them and befouled 
them. Such an attack was irresistible — Ka- 
kuhihewa's men fled, and Kapoi was set free. 

Kakiihihewa said to Kapoi: "Your god has 
mana (miraculous power) greater than my god. 
Your god is a true god.'' 

Kapoi was saved. The owl was worshipped 
as a god. The place of that battle was 
Kukaeunahio-ka-pueo (The-confused-noise-of- 
owls-rising-in-masses) . 





138 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

XIX 

THE TWO FISH FROM TAHITI 

JTRANGERS to Hawaiian history 
should know that to the Hawaiians 
Tahiti meant any far-away or foreign 
land. Tahiti belongs to the Society Islands. 
Centuries ago it was one of the points visited by 
the Vikings of the Pacific, the Polynesian sea- 
rovers, among whom certain chiefs of the Hawai- 
ian Islands were not the least noted. They 
sailed to Tahiti and Samoa and other islands of 
the great ocean and returned after many months, 
celebrating their voyages in personal chants. 

Thus the names of places many hundreds of 
miles distant from the Hawaiian group were 
recorded in the chants and legends of the most 
famous families of Hawaiian chiefs and kings. 
Some of the names brought back by the wanderers 
appear to have been given to places in their own 
homeland. A large district on the island of 
Maui, where, it is said, the friends of a Viking 
would gather for feasting and farewell dancing, 
was named Kahiki-nui (The great * Tahiti). A 
point of land not far from this district was 

* *'T" and **K" are interchangeable. 



THE TWO FISH FROM TAHITI 139 

called Keala-i-kahiki (The-way-to-Tahiti) . These 
names are not of recent origin, but are found in 
the scenes described by roving ancestors noted in 
genealogies of long ago. Probably about the 
same time that the Vikings of Scandinavia were 
roaming along the Atlantic coasts the Pacific 
seamen were passing from group to group among 
the Pacific islands. 

After many voyages and several years probably 
the people who never wandered became careless 
concerning the specific name of the place to 
which some of their friends had sailed, and in- 
cluded the whole outside world in the compre- 
hensive declaration, ^^Gone to Tahiti" (Kahiki). 
At any rate, this has been the usage for some cent- 
uries among the Hawaiians. 

The story I am about to tell you came to me 
as a marvellous, mysterious, miraculous myth 
of the long ago, when strange powers dwelt in 
both animals and men, and when cannibalism 
might have been carried on to be reported 
later under the guise of eating the flesh of beast 
or fish. In the long ago there were two *'fish" 
crossing the trackless waters of the Pacific Ocean. 
Their home was in one of the far-away lands, 
known as Tahiti. These ^^ fish" were great canoes 
filled with men. They decided that they would 
like to visit some of the lands about which they 
had heard in the legends related by their fathers. 



I40 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

They knew that certain stars were always in 
certain places in the sky during a part of every 
year. By sailing according to these stars at night 
and the sun by day they felt confident that they 
could find the wonderful fire-land of Hawaii about 
which they had been taught in the stories of re- 
turned travellers. So the two "fish" — the two 
boats — after weary days and nights of storm and 
calm, of soft breeze and strong, continuous winds, 
found the northeast side of the island of Oahu 
with its rugged front of steep, precipitous rocks. 
The travellers landed first on a point of land ex- 
tending far out into the sea, terminating in a 
small volcano. Here they made examination 
of the unfriendly coast and decided to journey 
entirely around the island, one fish, or boat, 
going toward the north and the other toward the 
south. They were apparently intending to pass 
around the island and find an appropriate location 
for a settlement. Possibly they planned to make 
a permanent home or hoped to meet some good 
community into which they might be absorbed. 
The point of land which marked the separation 
of the two companies is called Makapuu. The 
boat which sailed toward the north found no 
good resting-place until it came to the fishing- 
village of Hauula. The stories told by the old 
natives of the present time do not give any details 
of the meeting between the strangers and the 



THE TWO FISH FROM TAHITI 14 1 

people residing in the village. Evidently there 
was dissension and at last a battle. The whole 
story is summed up by the Hawaiian legend in 
the saying: ''The fish from Tahiti was caught 
by the fishermen of Hauula. They killed it and 
cut it up into pieces for food." Thus the visitors 
found death instead of friendship, and cannibalism 
was thereby veiled by calling the victims ''fish'' 
and the victory a "catch." 

The custom of hiding hints of cannibalistic 
feasts and more definite human sacrifices under 
the name of "fish" continued through the cent- 
uries even after the discovery of the islands by 
Captain Cook and the advent of white men. 
David Malo, a native writer, who, about the 
year 1840, wrote a concise sketch of Hawaiian 
history and customs, described the capture of 
himian sacrifices by the priests when needed for 
temple worship. He says: "The priest con- 
ducted a ceremony called Ka-papa-ulua. It was 
in this way: The priest accompanied by a num- 
ber of others went out to sea to fish for ulua 
with hook and line, using squid for bait. If they 
were unsuccessful and got no ulua they returned 
to land and went from one house to another, 
shouting out to the people within and telling 
them some lie or other and asking them to come 
outside. If any one did come out, him they 
killed, and, thrusting a hook in his mouth, car- 



142 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

ried him away to the heiau [temple]." This 
sacrifice was called ulua, and was placed before 
the god of the temple as if it were a fish. Some- 
times a part of the body, usually an eye, was 
eaten during the ceremonies of consecrating the 
offering to the idol. This custom has passed the 
test of centuries and probably was the last rem- 
nant of cannibaHsm in the Hawaiian Islands. 
It endured even to the time of the abolition of 
the temples and their idols. 

The second fish from Tahiti had gone on 
southward in its journey around the island of 
Oahu. It passed the rough and desolate craters 
of Koko Head on the eastern end of the island. 
It swam by Diamond Head and the beautiful 
Waikiki Beach. Either the number of the in- 
habitants was so large that they were afraid to 
make any stay or else they preferred to make 
the complete circuit of the island before locat- 
ing, for they evidently made only a very short 
stay wherever they landed, and then hurried on 
their journey. By the time they reached Kaena, 
the northwestern cape of Oahu, they were evi- 
dently anxious concerning their missing com- 
panions. Not a boat on the miles of water 
between Kaena and Kahuku, the most northerly 
point on the island. The legend says that the 
fish changed itself into a man and went inland 
to search the coast for its friend, but the search 



THE TWO FISH FROM TAHITI 143 

was unsuccessful. It was now a weary journey 
from point to point, watching the sea and ex- 
ploring all the spots on the beach where it 
seemed as if there was any prospect of finding 
a trace of their expected friends. Where a 
break in the coral reef permitted their boat to 
approach the land they forced their way to 
shore. Then when the thorough search failed 
again, the boat was pushed out over the line 
of white inrolling breakers to the great sea until 
at last the Tahitians came to Kahuku. 

Now they appeared no longer as ^'fish,'' but 
went to the village at Kahuku as men. They 
made themselves at home among the people and 
were invited to a great feast. They heard the 
story of a battle with a great fish at Hauula and 
the capture of the monster. They heard how it 
had been cut up and its fragments widely dis- 
tributed among the villages on the northwest 
coast. Evidently provision had been made for 
several great feasts. The people of Kahuku, 
although several miles distant from Hauula, had 
received their portion. The friendly strangers 
must share this great gift with them. But the 
men from Tahiti with heavy hearts recognized 
the fragments as a part of their companion. 
They could not partake of the feast, but by 
kindliness and strategy they managed not only 
to decline the invitation, but also to secure some 



144 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

portions of the flesh to carry down to the sea. 
These were thrown into the water, and immedi- 
ately came to life. They had the color of blood 
as a reminder of the death from which they had 
been reclaimed. Ever after they bore the name 
'^Hilu-ula," or "the red Hilu.'' 

Then the *^fish" from Tahiti went on around to 
Hauula. They went up to the tabu land back of 
Hauula. They pulled up the tabu flags. Then 
they dammed up the waters of the valley above 
the village until there was sufficient for a mighty 
flood. The storms from the heavy clouds drove 
the people into their homes. Then the Tahitians 
opened the flood-gates of their mountain reser- 
voir and let the irresistible waters down upon 
the village. The houses and their inhabitants 
were swept into the sea and destroyed. Thus 
vengeance came upon the cannibals. 

The Tahitians were "fish," therefore they 
went back into the ocean to swim around the 
islands. Sometimes they came near enough to 
the haunts of fishermen to be taken for food. 
They bear the name "hilu." But there are two 
varieties. The red hilu is cooked and eaten, but 
never eaten without having felt the power of 
fire. The trace of the cannibal feast is always 
over its flesh. Therefore it has to be removed 
by purification of the flames over which it is 
prepared for food. The blue hilu, the natives 



POI POUNDER 



THE TWO FISH FROM TAHITI 145 

say, is salted and eaten uncooked. Thus the 
legend says the two j&sh came from Tahiti, and 
thus they became the origin of some of the 
beautiful fish whose colors flash like the rainbow 
through the clear waters of Hawaii. 

Another legend somewhat similar to this is 
told by the natives of Hauula. There is a valley 
near this village called Kaipapau (The-valley-of- 
the-shallow-sea). Here lived an old kahuna, or 
priest, who always worshipped the two great 
gods Ka-ne and Kanaloa. These gods had their 
home in the place where the old man continu- 
ally worshipped them, but they loved to go away 
from time to time for a trip around the island. 
Once the gods came to their sister's home and 
received from her dried fish for food. This they 
carried to the sea and threw into the waters, 
where it became alive again and swam along the 
coast while the gods journeyed inland. By and 
by they came to the little river on which the old 
man had his home. The gods went inland along 
the bank of the river, and the fish turned also, 
forcing their way over the sand-bank which 
marked the mouth of the little stream. Then 
they went up the river to a pool before the place 
where the gods had stopped. Ever since, when 
high water has made the river accessible, these 
fish, named ulua, have come to the place where 
the gods were worshipped by the kahuna and 



146 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

where they rested and drank awa with him. 
When the gods had taken enough of the awa of 
the priest they turned away with the warning 
that when he heard a great noise on the shore 
he must not go down to see what the people 
were doing, but ask what the excitement was 
about, and if it was a shark or a great fish he 
was to remain at home. He must not go to 
that place. 

A few days later a big wave came up from the 
sea and swept over the beach. When the water 
flowed back there was left a great whale, the 
tail on the shore and the head out in the sea. 
The people came to see the whale. They thought 
that it was dead. They played on its back and 
leaped into the deep waters from its head. 
Their shouts of joy and loud laughter reached 
the ears of the priest, who was living inland. 
Then the people came to the riverside to gather 
vines and flowers with which to make wreaths. 
Probably it was the intention of the villagers to 
cut the great fish into pieces and have a feast. 
The old priest was very anxious to see the mar- 
vellous fish. He forgot the warning of the gods 
and went to the seaside. The people shouted 
for the old man to come quickly. The old 
priest stood by the tail of the great fish. As if 
to welcome him the tail moved. He climbed on 
the back and ran to the head and leaped into 



THE TWO FISH FROM TAHITI 



147 



the sea. The people cheered the priest as he 
returned to the beach and a second time ap- 
proached the whale. Again there was the motion 
of the tail, and again the priest ran along the 
back, but as he leaped the whale caught him 
and carried him away to Tahiti. Therefore a 
name was given to a point of land not far from 
this place — the name "Ka-loe-o-ka-palaoa" 
(The cape of the whale). 




148 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

XX 

IWA, THE NOTABLE THIEF OF OAHU 

C^I^N ancient Hawaii thieving v/as an honor- 
^1r< ^^^^ profession. It required cultivation 
^^--^ as well as natural ability. Even as late 
as the days of Captain Cook and his discovery 
of the Hawaiian Islands there is the record of a 
chief whose business was to steal successfully. 
When Captain Cook discovered the island Kauai, 
a chief by the name of Kapu-puu (The-tabu-hill) 
was one of the first to go out to the ships. He 
went saying, ^^ There is plenty of iron [hao]. I 
will 'hao' [steal] the 'hao,' for to 'hao' [to 
plunder] is my livelihood" — as one historian ex- 
pressed the saying: "To plujider is with me 
house and land." The chief, however, was de- 
tected in the act and was shot and killed. The 
natives never seemed to blame Captain Cook 
for the death of that chief. The thief was un- 
successful. Really, the sin of stealing consisted 
in being detected. 

The story of Iwa, the successful thief, is back 
in the days when Umi was king of Hawaii, four- 
teen generations of kings before Kamehameha 
the First. The king Umi was well known in 
Hawaiian historical legends, and many important 



IWA, THE NOTABLE THIEF 149 

events are dated with his reign as the reference- 
point. 

In Puna, Hawaii, while Umi was king, there 
lived a fisherman by the name of Keaau. He 
was widely known for his skill in fishing with a 
wonderful shell. It was one of the leho shells, 
and was used in catching squid. Its name was 
Kalo-kuna. Keaau always returned from fishing 
with his canoe full. After a time he was talked 
about all around the island, and Umi heard about 
the magic leho of the fisherman. 

At that time Umi dwelt in Kona, where he 
was fishing after the custom of those days. He 
sent a messenger commanding the fisherman to 
bring his shell to Kona, where he could show its 
power and his skill. Then the king, who had 
the right to take all the property of any of his 
subjects, took the shell from the fisherman. 

Keaau's heart became very sore for the loss 
of his shell, so he went to a man on Hawaii who 
was skilled in theft and asked him to secretly 
steal the leho and return it to him. He brought 
his canoe filled with his property — a pig, some 
fruit and awa and the black-and-white and 
spotted tapa sheets — to give to the thief who 
could get back his shell. But neither this thief 
nor any others on the islands of Hawaii, Maui 
or Molokai was sufficiently skilful to give him 
any aid. 



I50 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

Then he passed on to Oahu, where he met a 
man fishing, who, according to the custom of 
the people, invited him to land and accept hos- 
pitality. When the feast was over, they asked 
him the object of his journey. He told the story 
of the loss of his leho, and said that he was 
travelling to find ^^a thief able to steal back the 
shell taken by the strong hand of the chief of 
Hawaii.'' 

Then the Oahu people told him about Iwa 
and his marvellous skill in plundering. They 
directed him to row his canoe around by Ma- 
kapo and then land, and he would find a boy 
without a malo (loin cloth). He must give him 
the offering — the good things brought in the 
canoe. He found the boy and placed before him 
the gifts. They killed the pig and cooked it over 
hot stones. Then they had a feast, and the boy- 
thief asked the traveller why he had come to him. 
The fisherman told all his trouble and asked Iwa 
to go with him to recover the shell. To this 
Iwa consented, and after a night's rest prepared 
to go to Hawaii. 

When the time came for the journey he placed 
Keaau in front and took his place to steer and 
paddle. The name of his paddle was Kapahi, 
which means ^'Scatter the water." Iwa told the 
fisherman to look sharp at the land before them; 
then he talked to his paddle, saying, ^^Let the 



IWA, THE NOTABLE THIEF 151 

ocean meet the sea of Iwa." He struck his 
paddle once into the sea and the canoe rushed 
by the little islands along the coast and passed 
to Niihau. From Niihau in four paddle-strokes 
the canoe lay before the coast of Hawaii, where 
Umi and his chiefs were fishing. One of the 
canoes had a palm-branch house built over it to 
shade the fisherman. Iwa asked if that was the 
royal canoe, and, learning that it was, quickly 
backed his canoe around a headland and pre- 
pared to dive, saying to his friend, ^^I will go 
and steal that leho/' 

He leaped into the water and sank to the 
bottom of the ocean. He walked along under 
the sea aided by his magic power until he came 
to the place where the king^s canoes were float- 
ing. Over the side of the king's boat hung the 
cord to which the shell was fastened. Iwa rose 
quietly under the canoe and caught the leho, 
slowly drew it down to the bottom, broke the 
cord and fastened it to sharp rocks, and then 
went back to the place where Keaau was wait- 
ing for him. All along the way giant squid and 
devilfish fought him and tried to take the shell 
from his hands, but by incantations and the 
power of his gods he escaped to the canoe, and, 
leaping in, gave the leho to the fisherman, and 
paddled away to Puna. There he dwelt with 
Keaau for a little while. 



152 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

When the boy-thief took the cord of Umi he 
thought that a very great squid had seized the 
shell, and let the line run, afraid lest it might 
break and the shell be lost, but when he tried 
to pull he found it fast below. He sent to the 
land for all the people who could dive, but none 
of them could go to the bottom. Ten days and 
ten nights he waited in his canoe. Then he 
sent over all the island Hawaii for those who 
knew how to dive in deep water, but all the 
noted divers failed. The messenger came to the 
place where Iwa was staying. Keaau was away 
fishing. Iwa took the messenger to the place 
where the fisherman dried squid and showed him 
a great many already caught. Then Iwa said, 
'^Go back and tell your king that the leho is 
not on the line, but a rock is holding it fast." 

The messenger returned to the king and re- 
ported the saying of Iwa. Then the king sent 
swift men to run and bring Iwa to him. The 
boy agreed to go to Umi, and sped more swiftly 
than the runners sent for him. When he stood 
before Umi he told the king all his story and 
leaped into the sea, diving down, breaking the 
rock and bringing up the piece to which the 
line had been tied. Umi then wanted Iwa to 
return to Puna and steal that leho for him. 
Iwa went back to the fisherman's house, and 
that night stole the shell for the king. 



IWA, THE NOTABLE THIEF 153 

When Umi received the shell he rejoiced 
greatly at the skill of this thief. Then he 
thought about his tabu stone axe in Waipio 
Valley, and wished to test this boy-thief again. 

This sacred stone axe really belonged to Umi, 
the son of Liloa, but it had been kept in the 
tabu heiau (sacred temple) of Pakaalana, in 
Waipio Valley. Two old women were guardians 
of this tabu axe. It was tied fast in the middle 
of a line. One end of that cord was fastened 
around the neck of one old woman, and one end 
around the neck of the other. Thus they wore 
the cord as a lei (wreath) of that sacred stone axe 
of Umi. When Umi asked the thief if he would 
steal this axe, Iwa said he would try, but he 
waited imtil the sun was almost down, then he 
ran swiftly to Waipio Valley as if he were a 
messenger of the king, calling to the people and 
estabhshing a tabu over the land: 

"Sleep — sleep for the sacred stone axe of Umi. 
Tabu — let no man go forth from his house. 
Tabu — let no dog bark. 
Tabu — ^let no rooster crow. 
Tabu — ^let no pig make a noise. 
Sleep — sleep till the tabu is raised." 

Five times he called the tabu, beginning at 
Puukapu near Waimea, as he went to the 
guarded path to Waipio. When he had estab- 
lished this tabu he travelled down to the place 



154 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

where the old women guarded the axe. He 
called again, "Has sleep come to you two?'' 
And they answered, "Here we are; we are not 
asleep.'' He called again: "Where are you? I 
would touch that sacred axe of Umi and return 
and report that this hand has held the sacred 
stone axe of the king." 

He came near and took the axe and pulled 
the ends of the string tight around the necks of 
the old women, choking them and throwing them 
over. Then he broke the string and ran swiftly 
up the path over the precipice. The old women 
disentangled themselves and began to cry out, 
"Stolen is the tabu axe of Umi, and the thief 
has gone up toward Waimea." The people fol- 
lowed Iwa from place to place, but could not 
overtake him, and soon lost him. 

Iwa went en to the king's place and lay down 
to sleep. As morning drew near the king's 
people foimd him asleep and told the kmg he 
had not been away, but when Iwa was awake 
he was called to the king, who said, "Here, you 
have not got the tabu stone axe." 

"Perhaps not," said the boy, "but here is an 
axe which I found last night. Will you look at 
it?" The king saw that it was his tabu axe, 
and wondered at the magic power of the thief, 
for he thought it impossible to go to Waipio and 
return in the one night, and he knew how diffi- 



IWA, THE NOTABLE THIEF 155 

cult it would be to get the axe and escape from 
the people. 

He determmed to give Iwa another trial — a 
contest with the best thieves of his kingdom. 
He asked if Iwa would consent to a death con- 
test. The one surpassing in theft should receive 
reward. The defeated should be put to death. 
This plan seemed right to the thief from Oahu. 
It would be a great battle — one against six. 

The king called his clan of six thieves and 
Iwa, and told them that he would set apart two 
houses in which they could put their plunder. 
That night they were to go out and steal, and 
the one whose house contained the most prop- 
erty should be the victor. The report of the 
contest spread all through the village, and the 
people prepared to hide their property. 

Iwa lay down to sleep while the six men 
quietly and swiftly passed among the people, 
steaUng whatever they could. When they saw 
Iwa asleep they pitied him for his certain death. 
Toward morning their house was almost full, and 
still Iwa slept. The six thieves were very tired 
and hungry, so they prepared a feast and awa. 
They ate and drank until overcome with drunk- 
enness. A little before dawn they also fell asleep. 

Iwa arose, hastened to the house filled by the 
six thieves, and hastily removed all their plun- 
der to his own house. Then he went quietly to 



156 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

Umi's sleeping-house, and, showing his great 
skill, removed the tapa sheets from the bed in 
which the king was sleeping, and piled them on 
the other things in his house. Then he lay 
down again as if asleep. 

The morning cold fell on the king, and he was 
chilled, and awoke, feeling for the sheets, but 
could not find them_. He remembered the con- 
test, and as the daylight rested upon them he 
called the people together. 

They went to the house of the six thieves and 
opened it to look for their plunder, and not one 
thing was there. It was entirely empty. After 
this they went to Iwa's house. When the door 
was open they saw the king's tapa sheets on 
all the other plunder. The six thieves were put 
to death, and Iwa was honored for some years 
as the very dear friend of the king and the most 
adroit thief in the kingdom. 

After a time he longed for the place of his 
birth, and he asked Umi to send him back to his 
parents. Umi filled a double canoe with good 
things and let him go back to the green-sided 
pali (or precipice) of the district of Koolau, on 
the island Oahu. 




PI KOI THE RAT-KILLER 157 

XXI 

PIKOI THE RAT-KILLER 

3ONG, long ago in the Hawaiian Islands, 
part of the children of a chief's family 
might be born real boys and girls, 
while others would be ^^gods'^ in the form of 
some one of the various kinds of animals known 
to the Hawaiians. These ^^gods" in the family 
could appear as himian beings or as animals. 
They were guardians of the family, or, perhaps 
it should be said, they watched carefully over 
some especial brother or sister, doing all sorts 
of marvellous things such as witches and fairies 
like to do for those whom they love. 

In a family on Kauai six girl-gods were born 
and only one real girl and one real boy. These 
'^ gods'' were all rats and were named ^^Kikoo,'* 
which was the name of the bow used with an 
arrow for rat-shooting. They were '^Bow-of- 
the-heaven,'' "Bow-of-the-earth," "Bow-of-the- 
mountain," '^ Bow-of-the-ocean," '^ Bow-of-the- 
night" and " Bow-of-the-day." 

These rat-sister-gods seemed to have charge of 
their brother and his sports. His incantations 
and chants were made in their names. The real 



IS8 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

sister was named *^Ka-ui-o-Manoa'' ("The 
Beauty of Manoa'O- She was a very beautiful 
woman, who came to Oahu to meet Pawaa, the 
chief of Manoa Valley, and marry him. He 
was an aikane (bosom friend) to Kakuhihewa, 
the king of Oahu. They made their home at 
Kahaloa in Manoa Valley. They also had 
Kahoiwai in the upper end of the valley. 

The boy's name was Pikoi-a-ka-Alala (Pikoi, 
the son of Alala). In his time the chief sport 
seemed to be hunting rats with bows and 
arrows. Pikoi as a child became very skilful. 
He was very clear and far sighted, and surpassed 
all the men of Kauai in his ability to kill hidden 
and far-off rats. The legends say this was 
greatly due to the- aid given by his rat-sisters. 
At that same time there was on Kauai a very 
wonderful dog, Puapualenalena (Pupua, the 
yellow). That dog was very intelligent and 
very swift. 

One day it ran into the deep forest and saw a 
small boy who was successfully shooting rats. 
The dog joined him. The dog caught ten rats 
while Pikoi shot ten. 

Some days later the two friends went into a 
wilderness. In that day's contest the dog caught 
forty and the boy shot forty. Again and again 
they tried, but the boy could not win from the 
dog, nor could the dog beat the boy. 



PI KOI THE RAT-KILLER 159 

After a while they became noted throughout 
Kauai. The story of the skill of Pikoi was re- 
lated on Oahu and repeated even on Hawaii. 
His name was w^idely known, although few had 
seen him. 

One day his father Alala told Pikoi that he 
wanted to see his daughter in Manoa Valley. 
They launched their canoe and sailed across the 
channel, leaving the marvellous dog behind. 

Midway in the channel Pikoi cried out: ^^Look! 
There is a great squid! " It was the squid Kaka- 
hee, who was a god. Pikoi took his bow and 
fitted an arrow to it, for he saw the huge creature 
hiding in a pit deep in the coral. The squid 
rose up from its cave and followed the boat, 
stretching out its long arms and tr3dng to 
seize them. The boy shot the monster, using 
the bow and arrow belonging to the ocean. 
The enemy died in a very little while. This 
was near the cape of Kaena. The name of the 
land at that place is Kakahee. These monsters 
of the ocean were called Kupuas. It was be- 
lieved that they were evil gods, always hoping 
to inflict some injury on man. 

Pikoi and his father landed and went up to 
Manoa Valley. There they met Ka-ui-o-Manoa 
and wept from great joy as they embraced 
each other. A feast was prepared, and all 
rested for a time. 



i6o LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

Pikoi wandered away down the valley and 
out toward the lands overlooking the harbor of 
Kou (Honolulu). On the plain called Kula-o-ka- 
hua he saw a chiefess with some of her people. 
This plain was the comparatively level ground 
below Makiki Valley. Apparently it was cov- 
ered at that time with a small shrub, or dwarf- 
like tree, called aweoweo. Rats were hiding 
under the shelter of the thick leaves and 
branches. 

Pikoi went to the place where the people were 
gathered. The chiefess was Kahamaluihi, the 
wife of the king Kakuhihewa. With her was 
her famous arrow-shooting chiefess, Ke-pana- 
kahu, who was shooting against Mainele, the 
noted rat-shooting chief of her husband. The 
queen had been betting with Mainele and had 
lost because he was a better shot that day 
than her friend. She was standing inside tabu 
lines under a shaded place, but Pikoi went 
in and stood by her. She was angry for a 
moment, and asked why he was there. He 
made a pleasant answer about wishing to see 
the sport. 

She asked if he could shoot. He replied that 
he had been taught a little of the art, so she 
offered him the use of a bow and arrow and at 
that he said, ^'This arrow and this bow are not 
good for this kind of shooting. '^ 



PIKOI THE RAT-KILLER l6i 

She laughed at him. '^You are only a boy; 
what can you know about rat-hunting?*' 

He was a little nettled, and broke the bow and 
arrow, saying, ^^ These things are of no use what- 
ever/' 

The chiefess was really angry, and cried out, 
''What do you mean by breaking my things, you 
deceitful child?'' 

Meanwhile Pikoi's father had missed him and 
had learned from his daughter that the high 
chiefess was having a rat-shooting contest. He 
took Pikoi's bows and arrows wrapped in tapa and 
went down with the bundle on his back. 

Pikoi took a bow and arrow from the bundle and 
persuaded the high chiefess to make a new wager 
with Mainele. The queen, in kindly mood, 
placed treasure against treasure. 

Mainele prepared to shoot first, agreeing with 
Pikoi to make fifteen the number of shots for the 
first trial. 

Pikoi pointed out rat after rat among the shrubs 
until Mainele had killed fourteen. Then the 
boy cried: ''There is only one shot more. Shoot 
that rat whose whiskers are by a leaf of that 
aweoweo tree. The body is concealed, but 
I can see the whiskers. Shoot that rat, O 
Mainele!" 

Mainele looked the shrubs all over carefully, 
but could not see the least sign of a rat. The 



l62 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

people went near and thrust arrows among the 
leaves, but could see nothing. 

Then Mainele said: *^ There is no rat in that 
place. I have looked where you said. You 
are a lying child when you say that you see 
the whiskers of a rat.^' 

Pikoi insisted that the rat was there. Mainele 
was vexed, and said: *^ Behold all the treasure I 
have won from the chiefess and the treasure which 
we are now betting. You shall have it all if you 
shoot and strike the whiskers of any rat in that 
small tree. If you do not strike a rat I will 
simply claim the present bet." 

Then Pikoi took out of the bundle held by his 
father a bow and an arrow. He carefully strung 
his bow and fixed the arrow, pointing the eye of 
that arrow toward the place pointed out before. 

The queen said, ^^That is a splendid bow.'' 
Her caretaker, however, was watching the beau- 
tiful eyes of the boy, and his general appearance. 

Pikoi was softly chanting to himself. This 
was his incantation or prayer to his sister-gods: 

"There he is, there he is, O Pikoi! 
Alala is the father, 
Koukou is the mother. 
The divine sisters were born. 
O B en t-bow-of -heaven! 
O Bent-bow-of -earth! 
O Bent-bow-of- the-mountain! 
O Bent-bow-of-the-ocean! 



PI KOI THE RAT-KILLER 163 

O Bent-bow-of-the-night! 
O Bent-bow-of-the-day! 

O Wonderful Ones! 

O Silent Ones! 
Silent. 
There is that rat — 
That rat in the leaves of the aweoweo, 
By the fruit of the aweoweo, 
By the trunk of the aweoweo. 
Large eyes have you, O Mainele; 
But you did not see that rat. 
If you had shot, O Mainele, 
You would have hit the whiskers of that rat — 
You would have had two rats — two. 
Another comes — three rats — three!" 

Then Mainele said: ^^You are a lying child. 
I, Mainele, am a skilful shooter. I have struck 
my rat in the mouth or the foot or any part of 
the body, but no one has ever pierced the whisk- 
ers. You are trying to deceive. '' 

Pikoi raised his bow, felt his arrow, and said 
to his father, ''What arrow is this?" 

His father replied, ''That is the arrow Mahu, 
which eats the flower of the lehua-tree.'' 

Pikoi said: "This will not do. Hand me 
another.'^ Then his father gave him Lau- 
kona (The-arrow-which-strikes-the-strong-leaf), 
but the boy said: "This arrow has killed only 
sixty rats and its eye is smooth. Give me one 
more." 

His father handed him the Huhui (The- 



l64 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

bunched- together), an arrow having three or four 
sharp notches in the point. 

Pikoi took it, saying, '^This arrow wins the 
treasure," and went toward the tree, secretly 
repeating his chant. 

Then he let the arrow go twisting and whirl- 
ing around, striking and entangling the whiskers 
of three rats. 

Mainele saw this wonderful shooting, and de- 
livered all the treasures he had wagered. But 
Pikoi said he had not really won until he had 
killed fourteen more rats, so he shot again 
a very long arrow among the thick leaves of 
the shrubs, and the arrow was full of rats 
strung on it from end to end hanging on it by 
forties. 

The people stood with open mouths in silent 
astonishment, and then broke out in wildest en- 
thusiasm. 

While they were excited the boy and his father 
secretly went away to their home in Manoa 
Valley and remained there with Ka-ui-o-Manoa 
a long time, not visiting Waikiki or the noted 
places of the island Oahu. 

Kakuhihewa, the king, heard about this strange 
contest and tried to find the wonderful boy. But 
he had entirely disappeared. The caretaker of 
the high chiefess was the only one who had care- 
fully observed his eyes and his general appearance. 



PIKOI TEE RAT-KILLER 165 

but she had no knowledge of his home or how he 
had disappeared. 

She suggested that all the men of Oahu be 
called, district by district, to bring offerings to 
the king, two months being allowed each dis- 
trict, lest there should be a surplus of gifts 
and the people impoverished and reduced to a 
state of famine. 

Five years passed. In the sixth year the 
Valley of Manoa was called upon to bring its 
gifts. 

Pikoi had grown into manhood and had changed 
very much in his general appearance. His hair 
was very long, falling far down his body. He 
asked his sister to cut his hair, and persuaded 
her to take her husband's shark-tooth knives. 
She refused at first, saying, "These knives are 
tabu because they belong to the chief.'' At last 
she took the teeth — one above, or outside of the 
hair, and one inside — and tried to cut the hair, 
but it was so thick and stout that the handles 
broke, and she gave up, saying, "Your hair is the 
hair of a god." However, that night while he 
slept his rat-sister-gods came and gnawed off his 
hair, some eating one place and some another. It 
was not even. From this the ancient saying 
arose: "Look at his hair. It was cut by 
rats." 

Pawaa, the chief, came home and found his 



l66 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

wife greatly troubled. She told him all that she 
had done, and he said: *^ Broken were the handles, 
not the teeth of the shark. If the teeth had 
broken, that would have been bad.'' 

Pikoi's face had been discolored by the sister- 
gods, so that when he appeared with ragged hair 
no one knew him — ^not even his father and sister. 
He put on some beautiful garlands of lehua 
flowers and went with the Manoa people to 
Waikiki to appear before the king. 

The people were feasting, surf-riding and en- 
joying all kinds of sports before they should be 
called to make obeisance to their king. 

Pikoi wandered down to the beach at Ulu-kou * 
where the queen and her retinue were surf- 
riding. While he stood near the water the queen 
came in on a great wave which brought her be- 
fore him. He asked for her papa (surf-board) 
but she said it was tabu to any one but herself. 
Any other taking that surf-board would be killed 
by the servants. 

Then the chiefess, who was with the queen 
when Pikoi shot the rats of Makiki, came to the 
shore. The queen said, **Here is a surf-board 
you can use." The chiefess gave him her board 
and did not know him. He went out into the 
sea at Waikiki where the people were sporting. 
The surf was good only in one place, and that 

* Near the present Moana Hotel. 



PI KOI THE RAT-KILLER 167 

was tabu to the queen. So Pikoi allowed a 
wave to carry him across to the high combers 
upon which she was riding. She waited for him, 
because she was pleased with his great beauty, 
although he had tried to disguise himself. 

She asked him for one of his beautiful leis of 
lehua flowers, but he said he must refuse because 
she was tabu. ' ' No ! No ! " she replied. ' ' Noth- 
ing is tabu for me to receive. It will be tabu 
after I have worn it.'' So he gave her the gar- 
land of flowers. That part of the surf is named 
Kalehua-wike (The-loosened-lehua) . 

Then he asked her to launch her board on the 
first wave and let him come in on the second. 
She did not go, but caught the second wave as 
he swept by. He saw her, and tried to cut 
across from his wave to the next. She followed 
him, and very skilfully caught that wave and 
swept to the beach with him. 

A great cry came from the people. '^That 
boy has broken the tabu!'' ''There is death for 
the boy!" 

The king, Kakuhihewa, heard the shout and 
looked toward the sea. He saw the tabu queen 
and that boy on the same surf- wave. 

He called to his ofiicers: ''Go quickly and 
seize that young chief who h^s broken the tabu 
of the queen. He shall not live." 

The officers ran to him, seized him, tossed him 



l68 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

around, tore off his malo, struck him with clubs, 
and began to kill him. 

Pikoi cried: ''Stop! Wait until I have had 
word with the king." 

They led him to the place where the king 
waited. Some of the people insulted him, and 
threw dirt and stones upon him as he passed. 

The king was in kindly mood and listened to 
his explanation instead of ordering him to be 
killed at once. 

While he was speaking before the king, the 
queen and the other women came. One of them 
looked carefully at him and recognized some 
peculiar marks on his side. She exclaimed, 
''There is the wonderful child who won the vic- 
tory from Mainele. He is the skilful rat- 
shooter." 

The king said to the woman, "You see that 
this is a fine-looking young man, and you are 
trying to save him." 

The woman was vexed, and insisted that this 
was truly the rat-shooter. 

Then the king said: "Perhaps we should try 
him against Mainele. They may shoot here in 
this house." This was the house called the 
Hale-noa (Free-for-all-the-family). The king 
gave the law of the contest. "You may each 
shoot like the arrows on your hands [the ten 
fingers] and five more — ^fifteen in all." 



PI KOI THE RAT-KILLER 169 

Pikoi was afraid of this contest. Mainele had 
his own weapons, while Pikoi had nothing, but 
he looked around and saw his father, Alala, who 
now knew him. The father had the tapa bundle 
of bows and arrows. The woman recognized 
him, and called, ^^ Behold the man who has the 
bow and arrow for this boy." 

Pikoi told Mainele to shoot at some rats imder 
the doorway. He pointed them out one after 
the other until twelve had been killed. 

Pikoi said: ''There is one more. His body 
cannot be seen, but his whiskers are by the edge 
of the stone step." 

Mainele denied that any rat was there, and 
refused to shoot. 

The king conmianded Pikoi not to shoot at 
any rat under the door, but to kill real rats, as 
Mainele had done. 

Pikoi took his bow, bent it, and drew it out 
until it stretched from one side of the house to 
the other. The arrow was very long. He called 
to his opponent to point out rats. 

Mainele could not point out any. Nor could 
the king see one around the house. 

Pikoi shot an arrow at the doorstep and killed 
a rat which had been hiding underneath. 

Then Pikoi shot a bent-over, old-man rat in 
one corner; then pointed to the ridge-pole and 
chanted his usual chant, ending this time: 



I70 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

"Straight the arrow strikes 
Hitting the mouth of the rat, 
From the eye of the arrow to the end 
Four hundred — four hundred!'* 

The king said: ''Shoot your 'four hundred — 
four hundred.' Mainele shall pick them up, but 
if the eye of your arrow fails to find rats, you 
die/' 

Pikoi shot his arrow, which glanced along the 
ridge-pole under the thatch, striking rat after rat 
until the arrow was full from end to end, — 
hundreds and hundreds. 

The high chief Pawaa knew his brother-in- 
law, embraced him, and wailed over his trouble. 
Then, graspmg his war-club, he stepped out of 
the house to find the men who had struck Pikoi 
and torn oflf his malo. He struck them one after 
the other on the back of the neck, killing twenty 
men. The king asked his friend why he had 
done this. Pawaa replied, '^ Because they evilly 
handled my brother-in-law, — the only brother of 
my wife, 'The Beauty of Manoa.'" 

The king said, ''That is right." 

The people who had insulted Pikoi and thrown 
dirt upon him began to run away and try to 
hide. They fled in different directions. 

Pikoi caught his bow and fixed an arrow and 
again chanted to his rat-sister-gods, ending with 
an incantation against those who were in flight: 



PI KOI THE RAT'KILLER 1 71 

"Strike! Behold there are the rats — the men I 

The small man, 
The large man, 
The tall man, 
The short man. 
The panting coward. 
Fly, arrow! and strike! 
Return at last!" 

The arrow pierced one of the fleeing men, 
leaped aside to strike another, passed from side 
to side around those who had pitied him, strik- 
ing only those who had been at fault, searching 
out men as if it had eyes, at last returning to its 
place in the tapa bundle. The arrow was given 
the name Ka-pua-akamai-loa (The-very-wise- 
arrow). Very many were punished by this wise 
arrow. 

Wondering and confused was the great assem- 
blage of chiefs, and they said to each other, ''We 
have no warrior who can stand before this very 
skilful young man." 

The king gave Pikoi an honorable place among 
his chiefs, making him his personal great rat- 
htmter. The queen adopted him as her own 
child. 

No one had heard Pikoi's name during all these 
wonderful experiences. When he chanted his 
prayer in which he gave his name, he had sung 
so softly that no one could hear what he was 



172 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

saying. Therefore the people called him Ka- 
pana-kahu-ahi (The-fire-building-shooter) , be- 
cause his arrow was like fire in its destruction. 

Pikoi returned to Manoa Valley with Pawaa 
and his father and sister. There he dwelt for 
some time in a great grass house, the gift of the 
king. 

Kakuhihewa planned to give him his daughter 
in marriage, but opportunity for new experi- 
ences in Hawaii came to Pikoi, and he went to 
that island, where he became a noted bird- 
shooter as well as a rat-hunter, and had his 
final contest with Mainele. 

Mainele was very much ashamed when the 
king commanded him to gather up not only the 
dead bodies of all the people who were slain by 
that very wise arrow, but the bodies of the rats 
also. He was compelled to make the ground 
clean from the blood of the dead. He ran 
away and hid himself in a village with people 
of the low class until an opportimity came to go 
to the island Hawaii to attempt a new record 
for himself with his bow and arrow. 





KAWELO 173 

XXII 

KAWELO 

^ANY Kawelos are named in the legends 
of the islands of Oahu and Kauai, but 
one only was the strong, the mighty 
warrior who destroyed a gigantic enemy who used 
trees for spears. He was known as Kawelo-lei- 
makua when mentioned in the genealogies. 

Kawelo's great-uncle, Kawelo-mahamahaia, 
was the king of Kauai. The land prospered and 
was quiet under him. When he died, the people 
worshipped him as a god. They said he had 
become a divine shark, watching over the sea- 
coasts of his island. At last they thought it 
had become a stone god — one point the head and 
one the tail, one side red and the other black. 
His grandson, Kawelo-aikanaka, who became 
king of Kauai, was born the same day that 
brought Kawelo-lei-makua into the world. They 
were always known as Aikanaka and Kawelo. 
There was also born that same day Kauahoa, 
who became the giant of Kauai, and the per- 
sonal enemy of Kawelo. In their infancy the 
three boys were taken by their grandparents to 
Wailua, and brought up near each other under 
different caretakers. 



174 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

Some of the legends say that Kawelo's oldest 
brother, Kawelo-mai-huna, was born an eepa — a 
child poorly formed, but having miraculous 
powers. When born, the servants wrapped this 
child in a tapa sheet and thought to bury it, but 
a fierce storm arose. There v/ere sharp light- 
nings and loud thunder. Strong winds swept 
around the house. So they put the bundle in 
a small calabash, covered it with a feather cloak, 
and hung it in the top of the house. The grand- 
parents came and prophesied a marvellous future 
for this child. The father started to take down 
the calabash, but saw only a cloud of red feathers 
whirling and concealing all the upper corner. 
The old people, with heads bowed down, were 
uttering incantations. There came a sound of 
raindrops falling on the leaves of the forest 
trees, and a rainbow stood over the door. The 
voices of beautiful green birds (the Elepaio) 
were heard all around, and rats ran over the 
thatch of the roof. Then the old people said: 
'^This child has become an eepa. He will appear 
as man or bird or fish or rat." 

Other children were born, then Kawelo, and 
last of all his faithful younger brother, Kama- 
lama. The old people who took care of Kawelo 
were his grandparents. They taught the signs 
and incantations and magic of Hawaiian thought. 
They frequently went inland to the place where 



KAWELO 17s 

their best food was growing. They always pre- 
pared large calabashes full of poi and other food, 
thinking to have plenty when they returned; but 
each time all the food was eaten. They decided 
that it was better to provide sports for Kawelo 
than to leave him idle while they were away, so 
they went to the forest with their servants and 
made a canoe. After many days their work was 
done, and they returned to prepare food. Poi 
was made, and all kinds of food were placed in 
the ovens for cooking. Then they heard a 
sound like that of a strong wind tearing through 
the forest. They heard the squeaking voices of 
many rats. Soon they went to see the canoe in 
the forest, but it was gone. They returned home 
to eat the poi and cooked food, but they were 
all gone — only the leaves in which the food had 
been wrapped lay in the oven. Kawelo told his 
grandparents that little people with rat- whiskers 
had carried the boat down to the river and then 
had eaten all the food. One, larger than the 
others, had called to him, '^E Kawelo, here is 
your plaything, the canoe. '^ 

Kawelo went down to the river. All day long 
he paddled up and down the river, and all day 
long his strength grew with each paddle-stroke. 
Thus day by day he paddled from morning until 
night, and no one in all the island had such re- 
nown for handling a canoe. 



176 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

The other boys were carefully trained in all 
games of skill, in boxing, wrestling, spear- 
throwing, back-breaking, and other athletic ex- 
ercises. Kauahoa was very jealous of Kawelo's 
plaything, and asked his caretakers to make 
something for him, so they made a kite (a pe-a) 
and gave it to their foster-child. That kite rose 
far up in the heavens. Loud were the shouts of 
the people as they saw this beautiful thing in 
the sky. Kawelo asked for a kite, and in a few 
days took one out to fly by the side of Kauahoa's 
kite. He let out the string and it rose higher and 
higher, and the people cheered loudly. Kawelo 
came nearer and nearer to Kauahoa and pulled 
his kite down slowly and then let it go quickly. 
His kite leaped from side to side, and twisted its 
strings around that held by Kauahoa and broke 
it, and the kite was blown far over the forest, 
at a place called Kahoo leina a pe-a (The-kite- 
f ailing). Kawelo said the wind was to blame, 
so Kauahoa, although very angry, could find no 
cause for fighting. Then the grandparents 
taught Kawelo to box and wrestle and handle 
the war spear. Thus the boys grew in stature 
and in enmity. 

After a time the king of Kauai died and Ai- 
kanaka became king. The legends say the rats 
warned Kawelo, and he and his grandparents 
fled to the island of Oahu. The boat flew over 



KAWELO 177 

the sea like a malolo (flying-fish), leaping over 
the waves at the strong stroke of Kawelo. The 
rats under their king were concealed in the canoe, 
and were carried over to the new home. Kawelo's 
elder brothers and parents had been living for 
some time on the beach of Waikiki near Ulukou * 
by the mouth of the stream Apuakehau. The 
grandparents took Kawelo and Kamalama in- 
land and found a beautiful place among taro 
patches and cultivated fields for their home. It 
was said that when they came to the beach one 
young man went down into the water and 
carried the canoe inland. Kawelo called him 
and adopted him as one of the family. The 
boy's name was Kalaumeke (A-kind-of-ti-leaf). 
The boy said he was not as strong as he ap- 
peared to be, for he had the aid of many little 
long- whiskered people; his real power lay in 
spear-throwing and club-fighting. There was 
only one other yoimg man who was his equal 
— a youth from Ewa, whose name was Kaeleha. 
Kawelo sent for this man and took him into his 
family. They dwelt for some time, cultivating 
the place where the royal lands now lie, back of 
the Waikiki beach. 

One day they heard great shouting and clapping 
of hands on the beach, and Kawelo went down to 
see the sport. His brothers had been well taught 
all the arts of boxing and wrestling, and they 

* Site of Moana Hotel. 



178 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

were very strong; but they were not able to 
overthrow a very strong man from Halemanu. 
Kawelo challenged the strong man. His elder 
brothers ridiculed him, but Kawelo persevered. 
The strong man was much larger and taller 
than Kawelo. He uttered his boast as Kawelo 
came before him. ^'Strong is the koa* of Hale- 
manu. The kona [wind] cannot bend it.'' 
Kawelo boasted in reply, *^Mauna Waialeale 
will try against Mauna Kaala.'^ Then the strong 
man said: ''When I call 'swing your hands' we 
will fall against each other." With this word 
he advanced and struck at Kawelo, bending him 
over, but not knocking him down. Kawelo re- 
turned the blow with such force that the mighty 
boxer fell dead. Kawelo gave the body to the 
king of Oahu to be carried as a sacrifice to 
the gods in the heiau, or temple, Lualualei 
at Waianae. ''This is said to have been a 
very ancient temple belonging to the chief 
Kakuhihewa." 

Kawelo's brothers were greatly mortified to 
see their younger brother accomplish what they 
had failed to do, so in their shame they returned 
to Kauai with their parents. 

The king of Oahu gave Kawelo lands. His 
grandparents built him a house. It was well 
thatched except the top. He was a high tabu 
chief, and the kahunas (priests) said he must 

• A tree— -Acacia koa. 




A WAHINE 



KAWELO 179 

finish it with the work of his own hands. This he 
thought he would do with the beautiful feathers 
of the red and yellow birds. He lay down and 
slept. When he awoke he saw his rat-brother, 
who had miraculous power, finishing all the roof 
with most beautiful feathers of red and gold. 
The king of Oahu came to see this wonderful 
place, and blessed it, and lifted his tabu from it so 
that it would belong fully to Kawelo, although it 
was more beautiful than that of the king himself. 

Kawelo learned the hula (dance), and went 
around the island attending all hula gatherings 
until the people called him ^'the great hula 
chief.'' At the village of Kaneohe he met the 
most beautiful woman of that part of the island, 
Kane-wahine-ike-aoha. He married her, gave 
up the hula, and returned home to learn the art 
of battle with spears and clubs. No one was 
more strong or more skilful than his wife's father. 
Kawelo sent his wife to the other side of the 
island to ask her father to teach him to fight with 
the war-club. She went to her father and per- 
suaded him to aid Kawelo. For many days they 
practised together, until Kawelo was mighty in 
handling both spear and club. 

After this Kawelo learned the prayers and 
incantations and offerings upon which good 
fishing depended. Then he took the fisherman 
and went out in the ocean to do battle with a 



i8o LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

great fish which had terrified the people of 
Oahu many years. This was a kupua, or magic 
fish, possessing exceeding great powers. As they 
went out from Waikiki, with one stroke of the 
paddle Kawelo sent the canoe to Kou, with 
another stroke he passed to Waianae, and then 
began to fish from the shore far out to the sea, 
using a round, deep net. This method of fish- 
ing continues to the present day. A fish is 
caught and a weight tied to it so that it must 
swim slowly. Other fish come to see the stranger, 
and the net is drawn around them. Many good 
fish were caught, but the great fish did not come. 
Again Kawelo came to hunt this Uhumakaikai, 
but the Uhu sent fierce storm-waves against the 
canoe to drive it to land. Kawelo held the boat 
strongly with his paddle. Soon the Uhu ap- 
peared, trying to strike the boat and upset it. 
Kawelo and his fisherman carefully watched 
every move and balanced the boat as needed. 
Kawelo's net was in the water, its mouth open, 
and its full length dragging far behind the boat. 
The Uhu was swimming around the net as if 
despising its every motion, but Kawelo swept 
the net sideways and the fish found himself 
swimming into the net. Kawelo swiftly rushed 
the net forward until the Uhu was fully enclosed. 
Then came a marvellous fish-battle. The waves 
swept high around the boat. Kawelo and the 



KAWELO l8l 

fisherman covered it so that the water poured 
off rather than into it. Then the Uhu swam 
swiftly out into the blue waters. The fisherman 
begged Kawelo to cut the cord which held the 
net. Far out they went — out to the most 
distant island, Niihau. Kawelo saw a great 
battle in the net which held the Uhu. There 
were many fish inside attacking the Uhu. They 
were a kind of whiskered fish, biting like rats, 
digging their teeth into the flesh of the great 
fish. Kawelo uttered incantations, and the fish 
became weaker and weaker until it ceased to 
struggle. Kawelo paddled with strong strokes 
back to Oahu. 

Meanwhile the brothers and parents, who had 
gone to Kauai, were in great trouble under the 
persecutions of Aikanaka and his strong man 
Kauahoa. At last the mother sent the brothers 
to Oahu after Kawelo. They came to Waikiki 
while Kawelo was away trying to kill the Uhu. 
The youngest brother, Kamalama, received 
them and sent two messengers to find Kawelo. 
He recited a family chant, in which the names of 
the visiting brothers as well as the name of 
Kawelo's gods were honored. He charged them 
to remember the brothers' names or they would 
have trouble. They paddled out on the ocean 
calling for Kawelo and repeating the names 
from time to time. Suddenly a high surf wave 



i82 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

caught their canoe and overturned it, leaving 
them to struggle in the fierce waters. Soon 
they saw Kawelo coming with his great fish 
near his canoe. ^^O Kawelo!" they cried. ^^We 
had the names of your friends from Kauai — but 
our trouble in the water made us forget." Then 
Kawelo recited his chant, giving his brothers' 
names and also those of the tabu gods. Only 
the chiefs to whom the gods belonged could 
speak their names. When Kawelo uttered their 
names, the two men cried out, '^ Those are the 
men, and Kuka-lani-ehu is their god." Kawelo 
was very angry at the desecration of the name 
of his family god in the mouths of the common 
men. He stuck his paddle deep into the sea, 
tearing the coral reef to pieces, but the great 
fish caught on the coral and Kawelo could not 
row to the men. They rushed their boat to the 
beach and escaped. Kawelo then took a part 
of the captured fish and offered it for sacrifice 
in the temple at Waianae. The rest he brought 
to his people at Waikiki. 

As he came near the shore he called for his 
spear-throwers to meet him on the beach. 
Seven skilled men stood before him as he landed. 
They hurled their spears at one time straight at 
him, but he moved himself skilfully from side 
to side and threw the ends of his malo (loin- 
cloth) around them and caught them all to- 



KAWELO 183 

gether. Then he called his two adopted boys 
to throw. This they did with great skill, but 
he caught both spears in one hand. Kamalama 
took two spears, and Kawelo^s wife stood on one 
side with a fishhook and line in her hand. As 
the spears flew by her she threw out the hook and 
caught each one. 

The story of the Kauai trouble was soon told. 
The king of Oahu furnished a large double 
canoe. From his father-in-law Kawelo secured 
the historic battle-weapons— war-club and spear 
— with which he had learned to fight. Food in 
abundance was placed on the boats, and the 
household went back to Kauai to wage war with 
Aikanaka and Kauahoa, stopping at the heiau 
Kamaile — afterward called Ka-ne i ka pua lena 
(Ka-ne of the yellow flower) — to oft'er sacrifices. 
Some legends say this temple was at Makaha, 
and that Kane-aki was the name. This Ka-ne 
was one of the gods of Kawelo. Kawelo, ac- 
cording to one legend, had his people tie him in 
a mat as if dead as they approached Wailua, the 
home of Aikanaka. The beach w^as covered with 
people — the warriors of Aikanaka. As the double 
canoe came to the beach, the people made ready 
to attack. They waited, however, for the new- 
comers to land and prepare for fight. This was 
a formal courtesy always demanded by the ethics 
of olden times. When all was ready, Kamalama 



l84 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

stood by the apparently dead body of Kawelo, 
and pulled a cord which unloosed the mats. 
Kawelo rose up with his war-club and spear in 
hand and rushed upon the multitude. He struck 
from side to side, and the people fell like the 
leaves of trees in a whirlwind. 

Again new bodies of w^arriors hastened from 
Aikanaka. Kamalama, the seven spearmen and 
the two adopted boys fought this army and drove 
it back under a cliflE where Aikanaka had his 
headquarters. The seven spearmen, known in 
the legends as Naulu (the-seven-bread-fruit- 
trees), were afraid and retreated to the boat. 

Two noble chiefs asked Aikanaka for two 
large bodies of men (two four-hundreds), but 
Kawelo and his handful of helpers defeated them 
with great slaughter. Thus several larger bodies 
of soldiers were destroyed, and Aikanaka became 
cold and afraid in his heart. 

Then Kahakaloa, the best skilled in the use of 
war-clubs in all the islands, rose up and went 
down with the two hundred warriors to fight 
with Kawelo and his family. The father-in-law 
of Kawelo knew this chief well and thought that 
by him Kawelo might be killed if he went to 
Kauai, but Kawelo had learned strokes of the 
club not understood on Kauai. Soon all the 
warriors were slain, and Kahakaloa stood alone 
against Kawelo. As they faced each other Ka- 



KAWELO 185 

hakaloa swiftly struck Kawelo, but Kawelo while 
falling gave his club an upward stroke, breaking 
his enemy^s arm. In the next struggle Kawelo's 
swift upward stroke killed his foe. 

Then Kauahoa, the strongest, tallest and 
most skilful man of Kauai, arose and went 
down to meet Kawelo. Kauahoa took a magic 
koa-tree, root, stem and branches, for his club 
with which to fight Kawelo. His heart was full 
of anger as he remembered the troubles between 
Kawelo and himself in their boyhood. As he 
passed the multitude of his dead people he be- 
came beside himself with rage and rushed upon 
Kawelo. Kawelo stationed his wife on one side 
with her powerful fishhooks and lines to catch 
the branches of the mighty tree and hold them 
fast. Some of the legends say that she was very 
skilful in the use of the ikoi. This was a 
straight, somewhat heavy, stick with a strong 
cord fastened around the middle. It was said 
that she was to throw this stick over the 
branches, whirling and twisting the cord around 
them, greatly entangling them, so that she could 
pull the tree to one side. Kawelo ordered his 
warriors to watch the spots of sunlight sifting 
tlirough the branches. As the tree was hurled 
down upon them they must leap into the open 
places and seize the branches, holding on as best 
they could. When the giant struck down with 



i86 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

his strange war-club, Kawelo's friends followed 
his directions, while he leaped swiftly to one 
side and ran around back of Kauahoa while he 
was bending over trying to free his tree from its 
troubles. Kawelo struck down with awful force, 
his war-club cutting Kauahoa in pieces, which 
fell by the side of the koa-tree. 

Somewhere in the battles waged by Kawelo 
along the coasts of Kauai he was fighting with 
his giant enemy and struck his spear against the 
mountain ridge at Anahola, piercing it through 
and through, leaving a great hole through which 
the sky is always to be seen. 

Aikanaka fled to the region near Hanapepe, 
where he dwelt in poverty. Kawelo divided 
the districts of Kauai among his warriors. Kae- 
leha received the district in which Aikanaka was 
sheltered. Soon this adopted son of Kawelo 
met the daughter of Aikanaka and married her. 
After a while he wanted Aikanaka to again rule 
the island. He proposed rebellion and told 
Aikanaka that they could destroy Kawelo be- 
cause he had never learned the art of fighting 
with stones. He only imderstood the use of the 
war-club and spear. They ordered the women 
and children to gather great piles of stones to 
hurl against Kawelo. 

When Kawelo heard about this insurrection, 
he was very angry. He seized his war-club, 



KAWELO 187 

Kuikaa, and hastened to Hanapepe. As he came 
near he saw that the people had barricaded his 
way with canoes, and that back of these canoes 
were many large piles of stones in the care of 
warriors. He raised his war-club and leaped 
toward his enemies. A sling-stone reached him. 
Then the stones came like heavy rain. He 
dodged, but there were so many that when he 
avoided one he would be struck by others* He 
was bruised and wounded and stunned until 
he sank to the ground unconscious under the 
fierce shower. 

The people rejoiced, and, to make death sure, 
threw off the stones and beat the body with clubs 
until it was cold and they could detect no sign 
of breathing. 

Aikanaka had built a new unu, or heiau, at 
Mauilli, in the district of Koloa, but no man had 
been offered as a sacrifice upon its altars. He 
thought he would take Kawelo as the first human 
sacrifice. The people carried the body of Kawelo 
to the pa, or outside enclosure, of the temple, but 
it was dark when they arrived, and they laid the 
body down, covering it with banana leaves, say- 
ing they would come the next morning and place 
the body on the altar, where it should lie until 
decomposition had taken place. 

Two watchmen had been appointed, one of 
whom was a near relative to Kawelo. He soon 



l88 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

discovered that Kawelo was not dead. He told 
Kawelo about the plan to place him on the altar 
in the morning. He covered Kawelo again, 
placing his war-club by his side. In the morning 
the chiefs and people came to the heiau with 
Aikanaka and Kaeleha. When all were gathered 
together the watchman whispered to Kawelo. 
The leaves were thrown off, and Kawelo attacked 
the multitude and destroyed all who had rebelled 
against him. 

Some of the legends say that Aikanaka had 
placed Kawelo on the sacrificial platform and in 
the morning had begun to offer the prayer con- 
secrating the dead body to the gods, when Kawelo 
struck him dead before his own altar. 

When this rebellion had been overcome, Kawelo 
gave a large district with good lands to the watch- 
man who had befriended him. He retained his 
yoimger brother Kamalama in the district of Ha- 
namaulu and committed their parents to his care. 

Kawelo, as was his right, ruled over all the isl- 
and, passing from place to place, establishing 
peace and prosperity. He made his home at 
Hana, planting and fishing for himself, not 
burdening chiefs or people, but beloved by all. 
Thus he gained the honored name Kawelo-lei- 
makua (Kawelo, garland-of-his-parents) . 




AX ALTAR BENEATH THE LAHALA 




''CHIEF MAN-EATER'' 189 

XXIII 

^' CHIEF MAN-EATER" 

HIEF Mx\N-EATER," the cannibal, 
lived in the Hawaiian Islands. He 
was also one of the inhabitants of 
mistland. Legends gathered around him like 
clouds. Facts also stood out like tall trees 
through the clouds. He was a real cannibal, of 
whom the Hawaiians are not proud. 

The Hawaiians have frequently been called 
cannibals. Secretaries of the Missionary Board 
under which the first missionaries came to Hawaii, 
and papers of the denomination supporting that 
mission, have uttered the untruth, *^The cannibals 
of the Sandwich Islands would erewhile cook 
and carve a merchant or marine and discourse on 
the deliciousness of cold missionary." It was 
a very forcible background against which to 
paint moral improvement, but it was not ac- 
curate. The Hawaiians claim that they never 
practised cannibalism. If anything like a feast 
of human flesh was partaken of, it was only in 
exceedingly rare and obscure cases. And of 
these only ^' Chief Man-eater" is accepted as a 
historical fact. Legends that possibly have had 
a hint of cannibalism are very few. 



I90 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

It is recorded that after certain fierce battles 
of the long ago^ as a method of showing indignity 
to dead chiefs, their bodies were baked and 
thrown into the sea. 

It is barely possible that the baking was fol- 
lowed by cannibalism, but there is nothing in the 
record beyond the suggestion. 

The daring act of ^^heart-eating'' is men- 
tioned in Hawaiian annals. This came during 
or after a battle, when two warriors had been 
engaged in a hand-to-hand struggle. The vic- 
tor, whose strength was almost gone, would some- 
times tear out the heart of the dying opponent 
and eat it on the spot. It was believed that the 
strength and courage of the dead entered immedi- 
ately into the living. 

That the Hawaiian chiefs and priests set small 
value upon life is well attested by the large 
number of human sacrifices required for almost 
all civil and religious ceremonies. For instance, 
when the famous war-god Kaili was taken to a 
temple dedicated to it by Kamehameha, eleven 
human victims were placed at once upon the 
altar before it. When a chief desired a new 
canoe a man was usually slain at the foot of the 
tree from which the canoe was to be made. 
Another was slain when the canoe was complete, 
and others might be sacrificed at different stages 
of the work. When a chief's house was to be 



''CHIEF MAN-EATER'' 191 

erected, sometimes a victim was sacrinced and 
buried at each corner, and when the house w^as 
completed another slaughter occurred. When an 
idol was to be made, substantially the same sacri- 
fices accompanied the ceremony of choosing the 
tree and carving the image. At certain times 
the priests of all the temples demanded human 
victims, and regularly appointed officers, or 
man-catchers, were appointed to provide for 
the sacrifice. Not even their own relatives 
were spared in the search. Women were al- 
most always exempt from this horrible termina- 
tion of life. When a battle had been fought, 
many captives were sacrificed by both victor 
and vanquished. 

Infanticide was freely practised up to the time 
of the advent of the missionaries. Even for old 
people there was often but little love, and the 
aged and the infirm were left to care for them- 
selves, or placed on the beach for the outstretched 
hands of the incoming tide. 

A native historian says: ^^The ancient restric- 
tions of chiefs and priests were like the poisoned 
tooth of a reptile. If the shadow of a common 
man fell on a chief, it was death. If he put on 
any part of the garments of a chief, it was death. 
If he went into the chief's yard or upon the 
chief's house, it was death. If he stood when 
the king's bathing water or his garments were 



192 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

carried along, or in the king's presence, it was 
death. If he stood at the mention of the king's 
name in song, it was death. There were many 
other offences of the people which were made 
capital by the chiefs. The king and the priests 
were much alike. The priesthood was oppres- 
sive to the people. Himian victims were re- 
quired on many occasions. If tabus were 
violated it meant death. It was death to be 
found in a canoe on a tabu or sacred day. If a 
woman ate pork, coconuts, bananas, or certain 
kind of fish or lobster, it was death." 

This much, and more, of human cruelty is 
acknowledged concerning the savage life of 
ancient Hawaii. Nevertheless, from the be- 
ginning of the earliest acquaintance of white 
people with the Hawaiian not an instance or 
hint of cannibalism has been known. 

The idea of eating human flesh was thoroughly 
repugnant. Alexander, in his brief history of 
the Hawaiian people, says, ^Xannibalism was 
regarded with horror and detestation." Isaac 
Davis, one of the first white men to make his 
home in the islands, declared that the Hawaiians 
had never been cannibals since the islands were 
inhabited. 

To the Hawaiian, 'Xhief Man-eater" was the 
unique and horrid embodiment of an insane ap- 
petite. He was the ''Fe-fi-fo-fum" giant of the 



''CHIEF MAN-EATER'' 193 

Hawaiian nursery. The very thought of his 
worse than brutal feast made the Hawaiian 
blood run cold. 

One of the legends of Ke-alii-ai Kanaka (The- 
chief-who-eats-men) tells of the sudden appear- 
ance on the island of Kauai, in the indefinite 
past, of a stranger chief from a foreign land, with 
a small band of followers. The king of Kauai 
made them welcome. Feasts and games were en- 
joyed, then came the discovery that secret feasts 
of a horrible nature were eaten by the strangers. 
They were driven from the island. They crossed 
the channel to Oahu. They knew their reputa- 
tion would soon follow them, so they went inland 
to the lofty range of the Waianae Mountains. 
Here they established their home, cultivated food 
and captured human victims, until finally driven 
out. Then they launched their boats and sailed 
away toward Kahiki, a foreign land. 

Ai-Kanaka (Man-eater) was the name given to 
a bay on the island of Molokai, now known as 
the leper island. Here dwelt the priest Kawelo, 
who, by the aid of the great shark-god Kauhuhu, 
brought upon his enemies a storm which swept 
them into the sea, where they were eaten by the 
subjects and companions of the shark-god. 

A legend, or, rather, a genealogy, placed a 
*Xhief Man-eater" on the island of Hawaii, but 
no hints are given of man-eating feasts, or of 



194 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

journeys to other islands, and the name may 
simply refer to a fierce disposition. The Oahu 
chief, Ke-alii-ai Kanaka, lived some time about 
the middle of the eighteenth century, as nearly 
as can be estimated. Up to the middle of the 
nineteenth century the accounts of Chief Man- 
eater's deeds and the accurate knowledge of his 
place of residence were quite fresh in the minds 
of old Hawaiians. 

It is still a problem to be decided whether 
Chief Man-eater was a foreigner or a Ha- 
waiian. The difficulty that makes his foreign 
birth a problem is the accepted date of the close 
of all intercourse with far-away island groups, 
such as Samoa and Fiji — at least three hundred 
years earlier than the century assigned to Ke- 
alii-ai Kanaka. 

It would seem best to accept the legend that 
the degenerate chief was a desperado and an 
outcast from the high chief family of Waialua, 
on the northwest coast of Oahu. 

Ke-alii-ai Kanaka was a powerful man. He is 
described as a champion boxer and wrestler. In 
some way he learned to love the taste of human 
flesh. When his awful appetite became known 
he was driven from his home. As he passed 
through the village the women who had been 
his playmates and companions fled from him. 
His former friends, the young warriors, called 



''CHIEF MAN-EATER'' IQS 

out *' Man-eater! Man-eater!" and openly de- 
spised him. In bitter anger he called the few 
servants who would follow him, and fled to the 
royal Waianae Mountains. Driven from his kin- 
dred and friends, he buried himself and his 
brutal appetite in the mountain forests. 

It is possible that soon after this he visited the 
island Kauai, and there passed himself off as a 
chief from a foreign land. But *'his hand was 
against every man" and therefore '^ every man's 
hand was against him." Finally he made his 
permanent home among the Waianae Mountains, 
in the range that borders Waialua. 

His followers numbered only a handful, for a 
single canoe brought them away from Kauai— if 
his was indeed the band driven from the hos- 
pitable shores of that fertile island, 

Kokoa and Kalo were the names by which 
he was known in his nobler young manhood, and 
Kokoa was his name to his followers, but he was 
ever after Chief Man-eater to the Hawaiian 
world. 

It was a wild and wonderfully beautiful spot 
that Kokoa chose for his final home. It was a 
small plateau, or mesa, of from two to three hun- 
dred acres on the top of a small mountain sur- 
rounded by other higher and more precipitous 
cliffs. It was luxuriantly covered with tropical 
growth and blessed with abundant rains. The 



196 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

Hawaiians have given the name Halemanu 
(house-of-the-hand) to this plateau. Its sides, 
sloping down into the valleys, were so precipi- 
tous as to be absolutely inaccessible. It could 
be entered only along a narrow ridge. The 
pandanus drooped its long leaves and aerial 
rootlets along the edges. The uluhe,* or tangle- 
fern, massed and matted itself into a thick dis- 
guise for the cannibals' secret paths through the 
valleys below. Native flowers bordered the 
paths and crowned the plateau, as if man's worst 
nature could never wither the appeal of things 
beautiful. A magnificent koa, or native ma- 
hogany, tree spread its protecting branches by 
the spot chosen by Kokoa for his grass house. 
Kukui-trees furnished their oily nuts for his 
torches. The ohia, or native apple, and the 
bread-fruit and wild sugar-cane gave generously 
of their wealth to the support of the cannibal 
band. They easily cultivated taro, the univer- 
sal native food, and captured birds and some- 
times unwary hunters who penetrated the 
forest recesses in search of the birds with 
rare yellow feathers. It was a beautiful den 
into which, spider-like, he dragged his victims. 
Kokoa led his followers into the mountains 
through winding valleys and thick forests and 
sometimes in the very beds of the Waianae 

• Gleichenia longissima. 



''CHIEF MAN-EATER'' 197 

brooks to this secluded retreat lying within the 
walls of one of the enormous extinct craters of 
the volcanic mountains. As they entered the 
valley below the plateau, one of his followers said 
to another: *^Our chief has found a true hiding- 
place for us. Let us hope that it may not prove 
a trap. If our presence here should be known 
to the people of Waialua, they could easily close 
the entrance to this valley with a strong guard 
and drive us against the steep walls up which we 
cannot climb." Kokoa only called out, "Wait, 
I will protect you,'' then led them to the plateau 
he had selected. 

The ascent to the simmiit was along a knife- 
blade ridge flanked by picturesque sides. For 
a long distance there was only room for one man 
to walk. One of the men carelessly hastened 
across this causeway, bearing a heavy burden of 
goods and weapons. His foot slipped. His 
burden overbalanced him. The sloping side of 
the ridge was covered with grass, which afforded 
no foothold. In a moment the fallen man and 
his burden were hurled down the slope. The 
terrified friends watched the flying body in its 
rapid descent, and saw it shoot out in space 
over the edge of a lava cliff, and heard it strike 
the broken debris at the foot. 

Two of the men were at once sent back to skirt 
the cliff and secure the remains of their com- 



198 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

panion. The others followed Kokoa with more 
careful steps. 

This hill, crowned by table-land, which was to 
be their home, was apparently the very centre 
of volcanic activity in former days. It had 
been the deposit of the last traces of the crater. 
Lava and ashes had been piled up, and then 
when the fires died away had been coated with 
the island plant life. Here they found a fortress 
that could not be assailed or approached except 
by one man at a time. From this place raids 
could be easily made upon the surrounding 
country. Here they brought their captives for 
their inhuman feasts. 

After the grass houses were built for perma- 
nent shelter, Kokoa (Ke-alii-ai Kanaka) caused 
a great hole to be made. This was the imu, 
or oven, in which the bodies of animals and 
men were to be baked. A fire was built in the 
bottom of the hole. Stones were placed upon 
the burning wood. When these stones were 
thoroughly heated and the fire had died away, 
the bodies were wrapped in fragrant and spicy 
leaves, laid upon the stones, and covered so that 
the heat might not escape. Then water was 
carefully poured down so that clouds of steam 
might make tender the flesh roasting over the 
heated stones. This was the ordinary Hawaiian 
method of preparing fish or chickens or animals 



''CHIEF MAN-EATER'' 199 

for their numerous feasts.* It was the regular 
festival preparation required by the cannibals. 

After a time Kokoa and his companions took 
a huge outcropping block of lava and smoothed 
away the top, making a hollow ipukai, or table 
dish, or, more literally, a gravy dish, upon 
which their ghastly repasts were served. This 
stone table was finally rounded and its sides 
ornamented by rudely carved figures. The 
stone was five or six feet in circumference. Not 
far from it the chief's grass house was built and 
the ground prepared for the taro which should 
be their daily food. 

Sometimes members of the little band carried 
birds which had been cunningly snared, and ex- 
changed them for fish and chickens with families 
living on the seashore. Frequently the entire 
band would make an attack upon a lonely 
household and carry every member of it to the 
mountain lair, that day after day they might be 
provided with such food as would satisfy the 
shameless craving of their gross appetites. 

The cannibal band often met strong resist- 
ance, and with their captives carried back the 
dead bodies of their friends. Sickness and death 
occasionally crossed the narrow ridge and struck 
down some of Chief Man-eater's followers, until 
at last Ke-alii-ai Kanaka stood alone by the 
ipukai. 

* Luau. 



200 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

Alone he watched for hunters and for those 
who came searching for rare plants or woods 
or birds. He guarded well his solitary retreat 
on the tableland. He did many daring deeds 
and terrified the people by his fabulous strength 
and courage. 

One day he captured and killed a victim whom 
he carried through the forest to Halemanu. 

A brother of this victim discovered and fol- 
lowed him to the path along the ridge. He 
recognized the chief who had been driven long 
before from Waialua. He knew the reputation 
for boxing and wrestling which belonged to his 
former leader. He went back to his village. 
For a year Hoahanau gave himself up to ath- 
letic training. He sought the strong men — the 
boxers and wrestlers of Waialua. He visited 
other parts of the island until he found no one 
who could stand before him. Then alone he 
sought the hiding-place of Chief Man-eater. 
He covered his lithe and sinewy body with oil, 
that his enemy might not easily grasp an arm or 
limb. He reached the narrow pass leading to 
Halemanu. 

His challenge rang out, and Chief Man-eater 
came forth to meet him. The chief started 
along the narrow path swinging a heavy war 
club and flourishing a long spear. 

Hoahanau made himself known and was recog- 



''CHIEF MAN-EATER*' 201 

nized by the chief. Then Hoahanau made 
known the terms upon wihch he wished to 
wrestle with the chief. 

^^Take back your club and spear, and stand 
unarmed beside your ipukai, and I will also stand 
unarmed by your imu. No weapon shall be 
near our hands. Then will we wrestle for the 
mastery.'' 

Aikanaka despised Hoahanau, whose strength 
he had well known in the past. He believed 
that he could easily overcome the daring man 
who stood naked before him; therefore, boast- 
fully taunting Hoahanau and threatening to eat 
his body upon that very ipukai, he threw away 
his weapons and waited the onset. 

As the combatants threw themselves against 
each other, Aikanaka was surprised to find his 
antagonist ready for every cunning feint and 
well-timed blow. It was a long and fearful 
struggle. The chief had been once thrown to 
the ground, but had twisted aside and regained 
his feet before Hoahanau could take advantage 
of the fall. 

Foaming at the mouth and roaring and scream- 
ing like an enraged animal, Aikanaka turned for 
a second toward his house, with the thought of 
rushing to secure a weapon. Then Hoahanau 
leaped upon him, caught him, and whirled him 
over the edge of the plateau. Down the chief 



202 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

swept, broken and mangled by the rough, sharp 
spurs of lava rock, until the lifeless body lodged 
in the branches of a tall ohia-tree far below. 

Note: This was the beginning and ending of 
cannibalism in the Hawaiian Islands so far as 
history and definite legend are concerned. Hale- 
manu was visited by Mathison, and a description 
of the carved stone table published in 1825. 

In 1848, a little party of white men were 
guided to the crater by an old Hawaiian, who 
repeated to them the story of 'Xhief Man- 
eater" substantially as it is given in this record. 
They found Halemanu. The foundations of the 
house, or at least of a wall around it, were easily 
traced. The ipukai and the imu were both there. 
The party did not notice any carved images on 
the side of the stone table. Indeed, the stone 
had been so covered by decaying debris that 
it scarcely extended a foot above the soil. 

In 1879 and in 1890, Mr. D. D. Baldwin, a 
member of the party visiting Halemanu in 1848, 
again sought the ipukai without a guide, but the 
luxuriant growth of tangle-fern and grass made 
exploration diflScult, and the carved stone table 
was not found. Somewhere under the debris of 
Halemanu it may wait the patient search of a 
Hawaiian archaeologist. 

Mr. Joseph Emerson, who has had charge of 



''CHIEF MAN-EATER'' 203 

governmental surveys of a large part of the 
islands and also is a prominent authority on 
Hawaiian matters, says that the sacrificial stone 
can still be found, and was seen by his brother 
within the past few years. He differs from the 
other writers in the name given to the place and 
also in regard to the locality. The right name 
should be ^^Helemano," carrying the idea of a 
train of followers of some high chief. The 
locality is some miles northwest of the Waianae 
Range in one of the valleys of the Koolau Moun- 
tains. To this place the chiefesses of highest 
blood were wont to come for the birth of their 
expected children. The valley was ^^tabu'' or 
'^sacred." Near this sacred birthplace of chiefs 
was the home for a time of the noted man-eating 
chief. 




Wft^tCwb 




204 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

XXIV 
LEPE-A-MOA 

The Chicken-Girl of Palama 

^TRANGE things are sometimes im- 
agined in the Hawaiian legends of 
ancient time. The story of Lepe-a- 
moa is an illustration of the blending of the Ha- 
waiian idea of supernatural things with the deeds 
of every-day life. It is one of those old legends 
handed down by native bards through genera- 
tions, whose first scenes lie on the island of 
Kauai, but change to Oahu. 

Keahua was one of the royal chiefs of Kauai. 
Apparently he was the highest chief on the island, 
but it was in the days when men were few and high 
chiefs and gods were many. He had spent his 
boyhood on the rich lands of Wailua, Kauai, and 
from there had crossed the deep channel to Oahu 
and had come to the home of the chief ess Kapa- 
lama after her beautiful daughter Kauhao, to 
take her to Kauai as his wife. But soon after 
his return one of the kupua gods became angry 
with him. A kupua was a god having a double 
body, sometimes appearing as a man and some- 




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LEPE-A-MOA 205 

times as an animal. The animal body always 
possessed supernatural powers. 

This kupua was called Akua-pehu-ale (god-of- 
the-swollen-billows). He devoured his enemies, 
and was greatly feared and hated even by his 
own tribe. He attacked Keahua, destroyed his 
people and drove him into the forests far up the 
mountain-sides, where, at a place called Kawai- 
kini (The-many- waters), where fresh spring water 
abounded, the chief gathered his followers to- 
gether and built a new home. 

One day Kapalama, who was living in her 
group of houses in the part of Honolulu which 
now bears her name, said to her husband: '^O 
Honouliuli, our daughter on Kauai will have a 
child of magic power and of kupua character. 
Perhaps we should go thither, adopt it, and bring 
it up; there is life in the bones." 

They crossed the channel, carrying offerings 
with them to their gods. Concealing their canoes, 
they went up into the forest. Their daughter's 
child was already born, and behold, it was only 
an egg! The chief had given an order to carry it 
out into the deep sea and throw it away as an 
offering to the sea-monsters; but the mother 
and her soothsayers thought it should be kept and 
brought to life. 

Kapalama, coming at this time, took the egg, 
wrapped it carefully in soft kapas, bade farewell 



2o6 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

to her daughter, and returned to Oahu. Here 
she had her husband build a fine thatched house 
of the best grass he could gather. The kapas 
put inside for beds and clothing were perfumed 
by fragrant ginger flowers, hala blossoms, and 
the delicate bloom of the niu (coconut) while fes- 
toons of the sweet-scented maile graced its walls. 
For a long time that egg lay wrapped in its cov- 
erings of soft kapas. 

One day Kapalama told her husband to pre- 
pare an imu (oven) for their grandchild. He 
gathered stones, dug a hole, and took his fire- 
sticks and rubbed until fire came; then he built a 
fire in the hole and placed the wood and put on 
the stones, heating them until they were very hot. 
Taking some fine sweet-potatoes, he wrapped 
them in leaves and laid the bimdles on the stones, 
covered all with mats, and poured on sufficient 
water to make steam in which to cook the pota- 
toes. 

When all was fully cooked, Kapalama went to 
the house of the egg and looked in. There she 
saw a wonderfully beautiful chicken born from 
that egg. The feathers were of all the colors of 
all kinds of birds. They named the bird-child 
Lepe-a-moa. They fed it fragments of the 
cooked sweet-potato, and it went to sleep, put- 
ting its head under its wing. 

This bird-child had an ancestress who was a 



LEPE-A-MOA 207 

bird- woman and who lived up in the air in the 
highest clouds. Her name was Ke-ao-lewa (The- 
moving-cloud). She was a sorceress of the sky, 
but sometimes came to earth in the form of a 
great bird, or of a woman, to aid her relatives in 
various ways. When the egg was brought from 
Kauai, Ke-ao-lewa told her servants to prepare 
a swimming-pool for the use of the child. After 
this bird-child had come into her new life and 
eaten and rested, she went to the edge of the pool, 
ruffled and picked her feathers and drank of sweet 
water, then leaped in, swimming and diving and 
splashing all around the pool. When tired of 
this play, she got out and flew up in the branches 
of a tree, shaking off the water and drying her- 
self. After a little while she flew down to her 
sleeping-house, wrapped herself in some fine, 
soft kapas, and went to sleep. 

Thus day by day she ate and bathed, and, when 
by herself she changed her bird form into that 
of a very beautiful girl, her body shone with 
beauty like the red path of the sunlight on the 
sea, or the rainbow bending in the sky. 

One day after she had made this change she 
stretched herself out with her face downward and 
called to her grandparents: '^Oh, where are you 
two? Perhaps you will come inside." 

They heard a weak, muffled voice, and one 
said: ^' Where is that voice calling us two? This 



208 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

is a strange thing. As a tabu place, no one has 
been allowed to come here; it is for us and our 
children alone." The woman said, ^^We will 
listen again; perhaps we can understand this 
voice." Soon they heard the child call as before. 
Kapalama said: ^'That is a voice 
from the house of our child. 
We must go there.'' 

She ran to the house, lifted 

rthe mat door, and looked in. 
When she saw a beautiful and 
strong girl lying on the floor she 
was overcome with surprise, and 
staggered back and fell to the 
ground as if dead. Honouliuli 
ran to her, rubbed her body, poured water on 
her head and brought her back to life. Then 
she said: *^When I looked in, I saw our grand- 
child in a beautiful human body wearing a green 
and yellow feather lei. It was her voice calling 
us." 

Thus Lepe-a-moa came into her two bodies and 
received her gift of magic powers. She was ex- 
ceedingly beautiful as a girl, so beautiful that 
her glory shone out from her body like radiating 
fire, filling the house and passing through into 
the mist around, shining in that mist in resplen- 
dent rainbow colors. The radiance was around 
her wherever she went. 



LEPE-A-MOA 209 

One day she said to her grandparents, '^I 
want another kind of food, and am going down 
to the sea for fish and moss/' In her chicken 
body she ate the potato food provided, but she 
desired the food of her friends when in her 
human form. Joyously she went down to the 
shore and saw the surf waves of Palama rolling 
in. She chanted as she saw this white surf: 
**My love, the first surf. I ride on these white 
waves.'' 

As she rested on the crest of a great comber 
sweeping toward the beach she saw a squid 
rising up and tossing out its long arms to catch 
her. She laughed and caught it in her hand, 
saying, ^^One squid, the first, for the gods." 
This she took to the beach and put in a fish- 
basket she had left on the sand with her skirt 
and lei. Again she went out, and saw two 
squid rising to meet her. This time she sang, 
*'Here are two squid for the grandparents." 
Then she saw and caught another floating on 
the wave with her. This she took, exclaiming, 
"Forme; this squid is mine." 

The grandparents rejoiced when they saw the 
excellent food provided them. Again and again 
she went to the sea, catching fish and gathering 
sweet moss from the reef. Thus the days of her 
childhood passed. Her grandfather gave his 
name, Honouliuli, to a land district west of 



2IO LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

Honolulu, while Kapalama gave hers to the 
place where they lived. The bird-child's parents 
still dwelt in their forest home on Kauai, hidden 
from their enemy Akua-pehu-ale. 

Note: In Hawaiian legends and even in his- 
tory, down to the last ruler of the islands, a 
divinely given rainbow was supposed to be arched 
from time to time over those of high-chief birth. 
A child of divine and human or miraculous power 
in the family of a high chief would almost inva- 
riably have its birth attended by thimder, light- 
ning, storm, and brilliant rainbows. These rain- 
bows would usually follow the child wherever it 
went, resting over any place where it stopped. 
Sometimes the glory of the royal blood in a 
child would be so great that it would shine 
through the thatch of a house like a blazing fire, 
flashing out in the darkness like devouring 
flames, or, if the child was in the sea, the glory 
shone into the spray Kke rainbows. 

Some legends state that the sorcerers could 
tell the difference between the colors radiating 
from members of different royal families. If a 
kahuna saw a canoe far away with a mass of 
color above it, he could give the name of the 
person in it and his lineage. It is even stated 
that it was possible to discern these rainbows 
of royalty from island to island and know where 



LEPE-A-MOA 211 

the person was at that time staying. Lono-o- 
pua-kau was the god who had charge of these 
signs of a chief's presence. 




Kauilani and Akua-pehu-ale. 

After a time Lepe-a-moa's mother gave birth 
to a fine boy, who was named Kauilani. He 
was born in the forest by the water-springs 
Kawaikini. On the day of his birth a great 
storm swept over the land. Rain fell in tor- 
rents and swept in red streams down the val- 
leys, thunder rolled, lightning flashed, earth- 
quakes shook the land, and rainbows arched his 
birthplace. This time, since a boy was born, he 
belonged to the family of the father. His grand- 
parents were Lau-ka-ie-ie and Kani-a-ula. 

They took the child and bathed him in a won- 
derful fountain called Wai-ui (Water-of-strength), 
which had the power of conferring rapid growth, 



212 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

great strength, and remarkable beauty upon 
those who bathed therein. The child was taken 
frequently to this fountain, so that he grew rap- 
idly and was soon a man with only the years of 
a boy. The two old people were kupuas having 
very great powers. They could appear as himian 
beings or could assume wind bodies and fly like 
the wind from place to place. They could not 
give the boy a double body, but they could give 
him supernatural powers with his name Kaui- 
lani (The-divine-athlete). They boimd around 
him their marvellous malo (loin cloth) called 
Paihiku. 

When Keahua, the father, saw the boy, he 
said: "How is it that you have grown so fast 
and become a man so soon? Life is with you. 
Perhaps now you can help me. A quarrelsome 
friend sought war with me a long time ago and 
came near killing me; that is why we dwell in 
this mountain forest beyond his reach. Maybe 
you and my servants can destroy this enemy,'' 
telling him also the character and dwelling-place 
of Akua-pehu-ale. 

Kauilani said to his father, "If you adopt my 
plan, perhaps we may kill this Akua-pehu-ale." 
The father agreed and asked what steps should 
be taken. He was then told to send his servants 
up into the mountain to cut down ahakea*-trees 

* Bobea Elatior also Hookeri. 



LEPE-A-MOA 213 

and shape them into planks, then carry some of 
the sticks to the foot of the precipice near their 
home, and set them in the ground and to take 
the others to the sea and there set them up Hke 
stakes close together. 

That night was made very dark by the sor- 
cery of the young chief. All the people slept 
soundly. At midnight Kauilani went out into 
the darkness and called thus to his gods: 

'^O mountain! O sea! O South! O North! 
O all ye gods! Come to our aid! Inland at the 
foot of the pali is the ahakea; by the sea stands 
the ahakea, there by the beach of Hina. Mul- 
tiply them with the wauke at the foot of the 
pali of Halelea and by the shore of Wailua. 
Bananas are ready for us this night. The 
bread-fruit and the sugar-cane are ours, O ye 
gods!" 

Repeating this incantation, he went into his 
house and slept. In the morning the high chief, 
Keahua, went out and looked, and behold! the 
sticks planted below the precipice had taken root 
and sent out branches and intertwined until it 
spread an almost impenetrable thicket. There 
were also many groups of wauke-trees which had 
sprung up in the night. He called his wife, 
saying, *^ While we slept, this wonderful thing has 
transpired.'' 

Kauilani came out and asked his father to 



214 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

call all the people and have them go out and 
cut the bark from the wauke-trees, beat it into 
kapa, and spread it out to dry. This was 
quickly done, and two large houses also built 
and finished the same day. A tabu of silence 
was claimed for the night while he again peti- 
tioned the gods. 

Soon deep darkness rested on the land, and 
all the people fell asleep, for they were very 
tired. Kauilani only remained awake at his in- 
cantations, listening to the rapid work of the 
gods in cutting trees, carving images, and filling 
the houses with them. 

Awaking the next day, the chief and his 
people went to the houses and saw they were 
filled to overflowing with images, and cover- 
ing the platforms and fences around the 
houses. 

Kauilani said to his father, ^'Let the men go 
up to a high hill inland and burn the dry wood 
and brush to attract the attention of your 
enemy while we prepare our battle.'' 

Akua-pehu-ale was sporting in the sea when he 
saw the smoke rising from the hills and mingling 
with the clouds. He said: '/That is something 
different from a cloud, and must be smoke from 
a fire made by some man. What man has es- 
caped my eyes? I will go and see, and when I 
find him he shall be food for me." Then he 



LEPE'A-MOA 215 

came to the beach, and his magic body flew to 
the lands below Kawaikini. 

All the people had been concealed by Kaui- 
lani, who alone remained to face the sea-monster. 
He stood in the doorway of one of the two large 
houses, with an image on each side, for which he 
had made eyes looking like those of a man. 

The god came up, and, fixing his eyes on the 
yoimg chief, said: ''Why are you hiding here? 
You have escaped in the past, but now you shall 
become my food." He opened his mouth wide, 
one jaw rising up like a precipice, the other 
resting on the ground, his double-pointed tongue 
playing swiftly and leaping to swallow the chief 
and the images by his side. 

Kauilani said sternly, *' Return to your place 
to-day, and you shall see my steps toward your 
place to-morrow for battle." 

The god hesitated, and then said: ''Sweet is 
the fatness of this place. Your bones are soft, 
your skin is shining. The glory of your body 
this day shall cease." 

The chief, without making any motion, re- 
plied: ''Wait a little; perhaps this means work 
for us two. This is my place. If I strike you, 
you may be my food, and the pieces of your 
body and your lands and property may fall to 
me like raindrops. It may be best that you 
should die, for you are very old, your eyelids 



2l6 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

hang down, and your skin is dry like that of an 
unihipili god [a god of skin and bones]. But I 
am young. This is not the day for our fight. 
To-morrow we can have our contest. Return to 
your sea beach; to-morrow I will go down." 

The god thought a moment, and, knowing 
that the word of a chief was pledged for a battle, 
decided that he would return to a better place 
for a victory, so turned and went back to the 
shore. 

The young chief at once called his father and 
the people, and said: "To-morrow I am going 
down to fight with our enemy. Perhaps he will 
kill me; if so, glorious will be my death for you; 
but I would ask you to command the people 
to eat imtil satisfied, lest they be exhausted in 
the battle to-morrow; then let them sleep." 

He laid out his plan of battle and defence. 
His mother and the grandparents who had cared 
for him, with a number of the people, were to 
fight protected by the growth of trees at the 
foot of the pali, and were to turn the god and 
his people toward the houses filled with the 
wooden gods made by the aumakuas (the ghost- 
gods). 

While all slept, Kauilani went out into the 
darkness and prayed to the thousands of the 
multitude of gods to work and estabHsh his 
power from dawn until night. 



LEPE-A-MOA 217 

In the morning he girded around him his male 
of magic power and made ready to go down. 
His father came to him with a pohshed spear, its 
end shaped to a sharp point, and set it up be- 
tween them, saying: '^This spear is an ancestor 
of yours. It has miraculous power and can tell 
you what to do. Its name is Koa-wi Koa-wa. 
It now belongs to you to care for you and fight 
for you.'' The young chief gratefully took the 
spear and then said to his father: ^^ Your part is 
to be watchman in the battle to-day. If the 
smoke of the conflict rises to the sky and then 
sweeps seaward and at last comes before you, 
you may know that I am dead; but if the smoke 
rises to the foot of the precipice and passes 
along to the great houses, you may know that 
the enemy is slain." 

Then Kauilani took his spear and went down 
to the open field near the shore, talking all the 
way to it and to the gods. When he came to 
the seashore, he saw the god rising up like a 
mighty dragon, roaring and making a noise 
like reverberating thunder. As he rushed 
upon the chief, there was the sound as of 
great surf-waves beating on the beach. The 
sand and soil of the battlefield was tossed 
up in great clouds. The god fought in his 
animal body, which was that of a great, swollen 
sea-monster. 



2i8 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

Kauilani whirled his sharp-edged spear with 
swift bird's-wing movement, chanting mean- 
while: '^O Koa-wi Koa-wa, strike! Strike for 
the lives of us two! Strike!'' The power of his 
magic girdle strengthened his arms, and the spear 
was ready to act in harmony with every thought 
of its chief. It struck the open mouth of that 
god, and turned it toward the precipice and thick 
trees. Backward it was forced by the swift 
strokes of the spear. When a rush was made, 
the chief leaped toward the pali, and thus the 
god was driven and lured away from his 
familiar surroundings. He became tangled in the 
thickets, and was harassed by the attacks of 
Kauilani's friends. 

At last his face was turned toward the houses 
filled with gods. The power which all the ghost 
gods had placed in the images of wood was now 
descending upon Akua-pehu-ale, and he began to 
grow weak rapidly. He felt the loss of strength, 
and turned to make a desperate rush upon the 
young chief. 

Kauilani struck him a heavy blow, and the 
spear leaped again and again upon him, till he 
rolled into a mountain stream at a place called 
Kapaa, out of which he crawled almost drowned. 
Then he was driven along even to the image 
houses, where a fierce battle took place, in which 
the wooden images took part, many of them 



LEPE-A-MOA 219 

being torn to pieces by the teeth of Akua-pehu- 
ale. 

Some legends say that Kauilani's ancestress, 
Ke-ao-lewa, who had watched over his sister, the 
bird-child, Lepe-a-moa, had come from her home 
in the clouds to aid in the defeat of Akua- 
pehu-ale. 

All forces uniting drove their enemy into a 
great, mysterious cloud of mana, or miraculous 
power, and he fell dead under a final blow of 
the cutting spear Koa-wi Koa-wa. Then Kau- 
ilani and his warriors rolled the dead body into 
one of the large houses. There he offered a 
chant of worship and of sacrifice, consecrating it 
as an offering to all the gods who had aided him 
in his battle. 

When this ceremony was over he set fire to 
the houses and burned the body of Akua-pehu-ale 
and all the wooden images which remained after 
the conflict, the smoke of which rose up and 
swept along the foot of the precipice. 

The father saw this, and told his people that 
the young chief had killed their enemy, so with 
great rejoicing they prepared a feast for the vic- 
torious chief and his helpers. 

Kauilani went with his parents and grand- 
parents down to the shore and took possession 
of all that part of the island around Wailua, 
comprising large fish-ponds, and taro and sweet- 



220 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

potato lands, held by the servants of the van- 
quished god. These he placed under the charge 
of his father's own faithful chiefs, and made his 
father once more king over the lands from which 
he had been driven. 



Kauilani finds his Sister Lepe-a-moa 

For some time after the famous battle with 
the evil god, Kauilani aided his parents in estab- 
lishing a firm and peaceful government, after 
which he became restless and wanted new ex- 
periences. 

One day he asked his mother if he was the 
only child she had. She told him the story of his 
sister, who had been born from an egg, and had 
become a very beautiful young w^oman. They 
had never seen her, because she had been taken 
to Oahu by her grandparents and there brought 
up. 

Kauilani said, '^I am going to Oahu to find 
her.'' 

His mother said: "Yes, that is right. I will 
tell you about my people and their lands." 
So she told him about his ancestors, his grand- 
parents and their rich lands around the Nuuanu 
stream and its bordering plains; also of the 
stopping-places as he should cross the island to 
Kapalama, his grandmother, where he would 



m 



LEPE-A~MOA 221 

find his sister under a rainbow having certain 
strong shades of color. 

The parents prepared a red feather cloak for 
him to wear with his fine magic malo. These he 
put on, and, taking his ancestral spear, went 
down to the sea. Laying his spear on the 
water, he poised upon it, when it dashed like 
a great fish through the water; leaping from 
wave to wave, it swept over the sea like a malolo 
(flying-fish), and landed him on the Oahu beach 
among the sand-dimes of Waianae. 

Taking up his spear he started toward the 
sunrise side of the island, calling upon it as he 
w^ent along to direct his path to Kapalama. 
Then he threw the spear as if it were a dart in 
the game of pahee, but instead of sliding and 
skipping along the ground it leaped into the air, 
and, like a bird floating on its wings, went along 
before the young chief. 

Once it flew fast and far ahead of him to a place 
where two women were working, and fell at 
their feet. They saw the beautiful spear, won- 
derfully polished, and picked it up, and quickly 
found a hiding-place wherein they concealed it. 
Covering up the deep furrow it had made in 
the ground where it fell and looking around 
without seeing any one, they resumed their 
work. 

Soon Kauilani came to the place where they 



222 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

were, and, greeting them, asked pleasantly, 
'^When did you see my travelling companion 
who passed this way?'' They were a little con- 
fused, yet said they had not seen any one. 

Then he asked them plainly if a spear had 
passed them, and again they denied all knowl- 
edge of anything coming near. Kauilani said, 
**Have you not concealed my friend, my spear?'' 

They replied: *^No. We have not had any- 
thing to do with any spear." 

The chief softly called, ''E Koa-wi! E Koa-wa! 
E!" The spear replied in a small, sharp voice, 
^^E-o-e-o!" and leaped out from its hiding-place, 
knocking the women over into the stream near 
which they had been working. 

Taking the spear, he went down to the seashore, 
scolding it on the way for making sport of him, 
and threatened to break it if anything else went 
wrong. The spear said: '^You must not injure 
me, your ancestor, or all your visit will result in 
failure. But if you lay me down on the beach 
I will take you to the place where you can find 
your sister." 

The chief said, ^'How shall I know you are 
not deceiving me? " 

The spear replied, ^'Sit down on me and in a 
little while we shall be at a place where you can 
see her." Then it carried the complaining chief 
to the beach of Kou. There it lay on the 



LEPE-A-MOA 223 

ground and said: ^^You see a tree, a wiliwili-* 
tree, standing alone near the sea and looking 
out over the waters? Go you to that tree 
and climb it and look along the beach until you 
see a rainbow rising over the waves. Under 
that rainbow you will see a girl catching squid 
and shellfish and gathering sea-moss. She is 
doing this for her old people. She is your 
sister.'^ 

The chief said, "I will go and see, but if no 
one is there I will punish you for deceiving me, 
and break you into little pieces.'' 

He went to the tree, climbed to the top branches 
and looked along the beach as the spear had 
directed. He saw a very strange thing out 
over the water: red mist and bloody rainclouds 
moving back and forth over the dark-blue waves, 
extending far out toward the horizon and also 
covering the place where he was to see the girl. 
He called down to the spear that he could not 
see any rainbow or any girl. 

The spear replied: ^'Everything is changing 
rapidly on the face of the sea. Look again.'' 

He watched the whirling mist and rain, and as 
it moved slowly he saw an immense bird with 
many red feathers on its body and wings. When 
it flew up from the sea it hid the light from the 
sun and cast a dark shadow over all that beach. 

* Erythrina Monosperma. 



224 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

He called to the spear, ''What is this great bird 
flying over the ocean?'' 

The spear replied: ''That is one of your 
ancestors, a kupua. She has a double body, 
sometimes appearing as a bird and sometimes in 
human form. Her name is Ka-iwa-ka-la-meha. 
She has dwelling-places in all the islands, and 
even in Kahiki. She has come to your sister, 
Lepe-a-moa, over the seas of the gods Ka-ne 
and Kanaloa." 

Kauilani watched the great bird as it rose 
from the sea and flew in mighty circles around the 
heavens, rising higher and higher imtil it was 
lost in the sky. 

Soon the atmosphere began to clear, and he 
saw the rainbow and the girl in the far distance. 
He came down and told the spear that all its 
words were true. The spear again asked the 
young chief to sit on it. He did so, and was 
carried rapidly to the group of houses where 
Kapalama was living with her husband and 
grandchild. 

That same day, after Lepe-a-moa had taken 
her basket and gone to the shore, Kapalama 
looked along the road toward the sunset and saw a 
small cloud hastening along the way. Watching 
it carefully, she saw a rainbow in the cloud and 
called to her husband: "O Honouliuli, this is a 
very strange thing, but from the rainbow in the 



LEPE-A-MOA 2 25 

cloud I know that our grandchild from Kauai 
is coming to this place. You must quickly fire 
the oven and prepare food for this our young 
grandchild.'' 

He made the oven ready, and soon had chicken, 
fish, and sweet-potatoes cooking for their visitor. 

When Kauilani came to his grandparents they 
all wailed over each other, according to the 
ancient custom of the Hawaiians. When the 
greeting was finished he went into the house set 
apart for men as their eating-place, into which 
women were not allowed to enter, and there ate 
his food. After this he went outside and lay 
down on a mat and talked with his grand- 
mother. 

She praised him for the great victory won with 
his spear against his father's enemy, and then 
asked why he had come to Oahu. 

He said, ^'I have come to see my sister in her 
double nature." 

She replied: '^That is right. I will take you 
to her house. There you must make a hollow 
place and hide under the mats and not let her 
see or hear you, lest you die. But when she falls 
asleep you must catch her and hold her fast until 
she accepts you as her brother. I will utter 
my chants and prayers for your success." So 
he hid himself in the girl's house and kept very 
quiet. 



226 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

Meanwhile Lepe-a-moa, who w^as through fish- 
ing, picked up her basket and started toward her 
home. She saw a rainbow resting over their 
houses and thought some strange chief had 
come. She rejoiced and determined that the 
chief should play her favorite game konane, 
a game resembling checkers. When she came 
to the houses she asked her grandmother for the 
strange chief, saying she saw the footsteps of 
some man, perhaps now concealed by the grand- 
mother. 

Kapalama denied that any one had come. So 
the girl went into her house, laid aside her human 
body, and assumed that of many kinds of birds. 
Kapalama broke cooked sweet-potatoes and fed 
the pieces to this bird-body. Having eaten all 
she wished, Lepe-a-moa went into her house and 
lay down on her mats and fell asleep. 

When deep sleep was on her the young chief 
leaped upon her, caught her in his arms, and 
held her fast. Jumping up, she dashed out of 
the house, carrying him with her. She flew up 
into the sky, but he still clung to her. The 
magic povv^er of that spear helped him to hold 
fast and made the bird fly slowly. 

As she heard her grandmother chanting about 
herself and her brother, the young chief of 
Kauai, her anger modified, and she asked the 
stranger, "Who are you, and from whence have 



LEPE-A-MOA 227 

you come?'' He said, '^I am from Kauai, and 
I am Kauilani, your younger brother." 

Then she began to love him, and flew back to 
her grandparents, who welcomed them with 
great rejoicing. 

For many days the young people and their 
grandparents dwelt happily together. In later 
years the young chief and his sister saved King 
Kakuhihewa in a remarkable V 

manner. As a result, the king ^^^^'^ 
gave his favorite daughter to Jf^'j^/^'''^ 
Kauilani as his wife, and ^"^^ 

Lepe-a-moa cared for their 
children. 

The Battle of the Kupuas 

This part of the legend of Lepe-a-moa be- 
longs to Waikiki and to Palama.* It is also one 
of the ancient long stories handed down from 
generation to generation among the Hawaiians. 
It came from the days of Kakuhihewa, who was 
the King Arthur of Oahu traditions and whose 
chiefs were "the Knights of the Round Table" 
after whom most of the noted localities of Oahu 
were named. However, this goes back into the 
misty past only about four hundred years. 

A boy and a girl were born on the island of 

• A district in Chinatown, Honolulu. 



228 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

Kauai, both possessing miraculous powers. The 
girl, Lepe-a-moa, was taken as soon as born to 
Palama, and there brought up by her grand- 
parents. The boy, Kauilani, was reared by 
his parents on Kauai, and there did many 
wonderful deeds, after which he came to Oahu 
to visit his sister. 

At birth, Lepe-a-moa was only an egg, which, 
under the care of the grandparents, developed into 
a very beautiful maiden w^ho could assiune at will 
a multitude of bird forms. Thus she was what 
the ancient legends called kupua, or a person 
having both human and animal powers. 

The young chief desired to visit the court of 
Kakuhihewa, who resided at Waikiki.* The 
grandmother, Kapalama, sent messengers to Ke- 
ao-lewa, the ruler of the birds of the heavens, 
for new clothing fit for the young chief, and they 
returned with a magnificent feather sash, and a 
glorious red feather cloak, shining like the blos- 
soms of the lehua-tree, and fringed with yellow 
feathers which were like golden clouds in the 
light of the setting sun. 

He boimd the sash over his shoulders and 
around his body as a girdle, or malo, threw the 
cloak from the heavens around him, took his 
magic spear, Koa-wi Koa-wa, which had the power 
of human speech, and journeyed to Waikiki. 

•Near Moana Hotel and Outrigger Club House. 




w <^ 









-^r 



i4i 



LEPE-A-MOA 229 

At this time Kakuhihewa was entertaining his 
sister and her husband, Maui-nui, who was king 
of the island of Maui. According to custom, the 
days were devoted to sports and gambling. 

Maui-nui had a kupua, a rooster, which was 
one of the ancestors of Kauilani's family, 
but was very cruel and destructive. He could 
assume a different bird form for each magic 
power he possessed. This, with his miraculous 
human powers, made him superior to all the 
roosters which had ever been his antagonists in 
cock-fighting. It was the custom of this king 
to take this kupua in his rooster body, with 
some other chickens, and visit other chiefs, 
having many battles and winning large amounts 
of property, such as the best canoes, the finest 
mats and kapas, and the most royal feather 
cloaks, as well as the lands of the chiefs who had 
not been subject to him. Sometimes, when all 
available property had been won, he would 
persuade a chief to ^^bet his bones." This 
meant that the poverty-stricken chief, as a 
last resort, would wager his body against some 
of the property lost. If defeated, his life might 
be taken and his body sent to the most noted 
heiau (temple) of his opponent and placed on an 
altar as a human sacrifice, or the body would be 
burned or cooked in a fire oven and thrown into 
the sea. 



230 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

Kakuhihewa and Maui-nui had been pass- 
ing many days in this sport. When the Maui 
king was afraid the game might be given up, 
he would let some of the ordinary chickens fight, 
or would select the weakest from his flock. Then 
a large amount of property might be returned to 
the original owners, but he took care to lead his 
opponents on until their pride or their shame 
compelled them to wager their very last resources. 

Thus the betting had gone on from time to 
time imtil the Maui king had provoked Ka- 
kuhihewa into betting his kingdom of Oahu 
in an almost hopeless attempt to win back all 
that had been lost before. 

The Oahu king realized that his brother-in- 
law was using a bird of magic power, but his 
bets had been made and word given, and he 
did not know of any way in which he could 
get sufficient magic to overcome his antagonist. 
He had heard about Kauilani, a wonderfully 
powerful young chief on Kauai, who had 
conquered a god of the seas and restored a 
kingdom to his father. He had sent messengers 
to Kauai to ask this yoimg chief to come to 
his aid, promising as a reward the hand of his 
favorite and most beautiful daughter in mar- 
riage; but the days passed and no word came 
from Kauai. Meanwhile Kauilani came before 
Kakuhihewa and was announced as a young 



LEPE-A-MOA 231 

chief from Kapalama. No one thought of any 
connection with the noted warrior of Kauai. 

The king was very much pleased with the 
young chief, and finally asked him if he had seen 
his chickens, and if he would like to go to the 
place where they were kept. 

Kauilani saw the chickens and sent for 
water, which the keepers brought to him. Taking 
it, he sprinkled the eyes of the roosters. None 
of them had sufficient power to keep from shut- 
ting their eyes when the water struck their 
heads. Then he said to the keeper, '^ These 
birds will not be of any use for our chief." 

Then he went to see the king's tabu rooster, 
the one reserved by the king for any last and 
desperate conflict. This he also tried and found 
wanting. 

The keepers then sent word to the king that 
a strange young man with great wisdom was 
looking at the chickens, and the king came out 
and asked Kauilani about the tests. 

The young chief sprinkled water as before, 
and then said to the king, ^^ Perhaps your rooster 
has strength and perhaps he has no power.'' 

The king said: '^Ah! We see that this tabu 
rooster has no strength for this conflict. He 
closes his eyes. His enemy is very strong and 
very quick. We shall be defeated and belong 
to the king of Maui." 



232 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

Then Kauilani said, "Perhaps I can find a 
bird of very great powers who can save us/' 

The king said: "If you defeat Ke-au-hele- 
moa, the magic rooster of the king of Maui, you 
shall become my son. My daughter shall be 
your wife/' 

Kauilani requested the king to have the 
place closed where the chickens were kept, so 
that no spy could watch them. He told the 
king he had a kupua chicken still in an egg, 
which would kill the great bird of the king of 
Maui, but that before the time came for the festi- 
val in which the cock-fighting occiurred his 
chicken would be hatched and have power to 
save the king and his kingdom. The king was 
filled with deHght, and took the handsome young 
chief at once to his house and sent for his 
daughter. 

He said to her: "I have set you free from the 
tabu which I placed upon you as the promised 
wife of the chief of Kauai. It is better that 
you should take this young chief as your 
husband." 

So they were married and lived together a few 
days. Then the young chief told the king he 
must go at once to obtain the chicken egg. He 
told his wife not to be jealous about anything 
she might hear among the people, and not to be 
angry in any way whatever at the time of his 



LEPE-A-MOA 233 

return, or he would not continue to have her as 
his wife. 

He went back to his sister, Lepe-a-moa. She 
saw him, and leaped to meet him, calling: 
"Come! Come! Come! I have waited and 
waited for you/' 

He told her all about his visit and the great 
need of the king, saying, "I have come back for 
this day only and for your help." 

Then they went to the bathing-pool, and were 
swimming, diving and bathing when they heard 
the sweet voice of the mischievous elepaio bird 
over them, around them, and at last from the 
bank of the pool, calling out: "Ono ka ia! Ono 
ka ia!'' C^The fish is sweet! The fish is 
sweet!") This bird was also Lea, the goddess of 
canoe-cutters. 

Kauilani called to her: "Why do you not 
get young fish in the ocean? Is this the only 
place for sweet fish? " 

Then the elepaio told the brother and sister 
about the great rooster belonging to the king of 
Maui, its miraculous power, and its name, "Ke- 
au-hele-moa," and then said: 

"You two go to the place of the fight. Take 
great care of your sister. Put her in a lei gar- 
land around your neck. You will note the ap- 
pearance of that rooster of the king of Maui: 
very tall; black, white and red feathers; only 



234 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

one tail-feather. If he sees his grandchild before 
the fight she will not escape, but if you keep her 
hidden until she goes out for battle he will be 
destroyed.'' 

When the brother and sister returned they 
told the grandparents about Kakuhihewa's 
trouble and the power of the rooster of the king 
of Maui to assume several bodies. Kauilani 
told them that the Maui king was so sure of 
winning that he had collected a great pile of wood 
wherewith to heat an oven in which to cook Ka- 
kuhihewa's body. 

The grandmother said: ^^That great bird is 
one of our own family, and has very great power, 
but Lepe-a-moa has much greater power if you 
two work together. He must not see her imtil 
she goes out to fight with him." 

Lepe-a-moa said to her brother: ^'This is bad 
for you. You come as if you loved me, but you 
have taken the king's daughter for your wife. 
If I go with you and your wife is angry with 
me, she shall be set aside and I will be your wife." 

Kauilani said, "That is right." 

Lepe-a-moa made herself very beautiful with 
a glistening spotted feather cloak. Her pa-u, or 
skirt, w^as like fire, flaming and flashing. Kaui- 
lani told her she must go first, as the eldest one 
of the family. Thus they passed in their 
splendid feather dresses down to Kou (Honolulu) 



LEPE-A-MOA 235 

and out to Pawaa, the people shouting and 
praising the beautiful girl. 

As they came to Waikiki the noise of the 
people could be heard far, far away: '^O the 
beautiful girl coming with the husband of our 
chief ess! O the beautiful girl!'' 

The king's daughter heard the shout and be- 
came very angry. She ordered the people to 
drive Kauilani and Lepe-a-moa away. 

But the servants knew the reason why the 
young chief had become the husband of the 
king's daughter, and said among themselves: 
"We want to live. We must not drive them 
away." 

Lepe-a-moa said to her brother, "I told you 
that she would be angry with me." 

"Yes," said the brother, "that is true, and 
you shall be my wife." 

They turned aside from the royal houses. 
The girl laid aside her girl body and put on her 
bird body in one of its smallest forms and was 
concealed in an egg. The brother wrapped this 
egg in a corner of his cloak, put it around his 
neck and went to the place where the chickens 
were kept and took one of the small houses of 
the keepers as his own. 

That evening, when a large calabash of food 
was brought for the chickens and set aside, he 
took it secretly, gave all the food to his sister 



236 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

and turned the calabash up as if it had been up- 
set and the food eaten by dogs. The caretakers 
were greatly worried because they had no food 
that night for the chickens. They knew that 
the chickens would not have any strength for 
fighting. 

When Kakuhihewa heard that his daughter 
had driven her husband away he was very much 
troubled, and was afraid that he and his people 
would be destroyed, so he sent messengers to 
look everywhere and if possible find the young 
chief, but they all failed. 

At last one of the guardians of the chickens 
said, *' Your son is sleeping in one of our houses." 

Kakuhihewa sent Kou, one of the highest 
oflScers in his government, to go after Kauilani. 
This Kou was the chief after whom Kou, the 
ancient Honolulu, was named. Kou foimd the 
young chief sleeping, and aroused him, telling 
him the king was very sorry for the anger of his 
daughter, and asking him to come back to the 
king's house and on the morrow see the day of 
death. 

Kauilani told Kou to return and tell the king 
to prepare everything for the day of battle, and 
hang a large kapa sheet between two posts. He 
pointed out two roosters which were to be taken 
first. The king was to send them one by one to 
fight. When they were killed the king was to 



LEPE-A-MOA 237 

ask for a time of rest. ''After this will be the 
time for my battle/' Thus he taught Kou, who 
returned and told the king. 

The next morning the king of Maui sent 
his messenger to the king of Oahu, asking 
if all things were ready for the battle of that 
day. 

The king of Oahu replied: ''Yes; we will 
go to the place of death. If they win, we die; 
but if we win, there shall be no death. I do not 
know how to kill a man in this way.'' 

So they all went to the battlefield. As soon 
as all the chiefs and the people were assembled, 
Maui-nui, king of Maui, leaped up and began 
his boast, proposing the battle and stating the 
conditions, "Death for the defeated." Ka- 
kuhihewa quietly answered: "If I win, I shall 
not kill you. You have already prepared for 
our death.'' 

The wife of the king of Maui favored the 
terms of the Oahuan ruler to be applied to both 
sides, but her husband again called out his con- 
dition, "Death to the defeated." 

Then Kakuhihewa stated his condition: "We 
will try one rooster, and then another. If 
both of my roosters are killed, we will rest 
until time has been given to get another bird 
for me." 

This was agreed to without any opposition. 



238 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

The chickens were quickly freed. The roosters 
leaped against each other and one fell dead. 
Then the second battle was fought and the sec- 
ond rooster killed. 

While they were resting, Kauilani went in 
behind that large kapa sheet which he had re- 
quested. The egg was wrapped in his cloak, 
which was thrown around his neck. He took 
out the egg and uttered an incantation: 

"The chicken comes out better in the heat. 
Both of us were bom at midnight. 
Dust rises and is blown like mist on a wave. 
Pick the flowers of the ohia — ^pick the flowers. 
Fly! Fly! Fly! 
Leaping in the dust of Kaumaea." 

The egg began to change until it became a 
full-grown chicken. 

Kauilani told his bird-sister to go out before 
the people thus: "Go all around the fighting- 
place. Go to the feet of Maui-nui, and look 
upon him; then go to the middle and stand there 
looking into the face of your ancestor. He will 
then know you perhaps, and will put on many 
kinds of bird bodies. If he puts on red, you 
must become white. You have more bird 
bodies than he. You will win. Then if he 
changes his body again I will tell you what to 
do until he becomes weary; then you put on 
your spotted body and kill him.'' 



LEPE-A-MOA 239 

The bird then left him and went out before the 
people. They made a great noise, laughing and 
crying out : '^ A hen ! A hen ! To fight the great 
rooster!'^ 

But she was very beautiful in her shining coat 
of feathers as she waited for the battle. Then 
the rooster came in, and Kauilani saw that he 
did not recognize his grandchild. Lepe-a-moa 
clucked and moved her head and wings like a 
hen calling to her young chickens. Ke-au-hele- 
moa was angry. His feathers rose as he came 
up and he changed their color into red. His 
antagonist became white. 

Then he struck at her, leaped at her, and tried 
to overthrow her with his wings, but was not 
able to touch her, while she lightly flew over his 
head, striking his face and beating him with 
claws and wings. 

Then he became moa-nene (a goose form), 
but Kauilani uttered a prayer and his sister be- 
came a swift aloe-bird, a small mud-hen. The 
battle again was fought, whirling, striking, leap- 
ing and flying, but the bird-girl was not injured 
in the least, while the rooster's face was bleeding 
and his eyes suffering from the terrific and 
swift blows dealt by Lepe-a-moa. She tore him 
to pieces, until the battle was in a thick cloud of 
flying feathers. 

The people thought he was dead, but his 



240 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

magic power was still in the fragments of his 
body, torn and thrown up, floating far up among 
the clouds. He rested in some mist-clouds 
above, and put on a body having the color of the 
yellow blossoms of the hau-tree. 

Before this the day had been quiet, but now, 
with the return of that rooster, the chill of 
snow and ice came down in a cold mist like the 
snow mists on the tops of the mountains. The 
rooster sent this icy, fine rain in a stream like a 
flowing river over Kakuhihewa and his people. 

Then Kauiiani called to his sister: "Behold 
Ke-au-hele-moa comes to his last strength. He 
follows the ice-cloud. Can you make a way of 
escape?'' This call was in a spirit voice and 
none of the people heard. 

Lepe-a-moa called upon Ke-ao-lewa (The 
morning cloud) for help, and a cloud was let 
down as a shield, turning off the cold mist and 
letting it pass on over the sea. So Kakuhihewa 
and his people were left in peace. 

Lepe-a-moa flew up into a tall coconut-tree 
and saw her enemy in the form of a manu-alala 
(great black bird) coming behind the mist to 
the battlefield. She flew down and put on the 
color of the pua-niu (the cream color of a coco- 
nut blossom) and again flew like a whirlwind 
around her enemy. Then the ancestor-bird 
took his last body, that of a moa-a-uha. 



LEPE-A-MOA 241 

Kauilani called to his sister to go around be- 
fore all the people, putting on her spotted body, 
and then return, looking sharply at the right wing 
of her enemy to find a place to break it, then fly 
against the right eye and pick it out, and after 
that fly down on the head of the king of Maui, 
then leap to the last battle, break the left wing, 
pluck out the left eye and tear the body to pieces. 
''Then he will die. He cannot make a new 
body for himself." 

Lepe-a-moa flew down upon the black bird, 
which tried to strike her with its strong wings, 
but when the right wing was spread out, showing 
its weak places, she flew in swiftly and broke 
that wing so that it could not be used. Then 
she leaped against the head and caught the right 
eye, destroying it. The black bird tried to whirl 
around and around to strike the spotted chicken, 
but Lepe-a-moa shook her wings over her enemy 
and flew off around the place of battle until she 
was in front of the Maui king. Before he could 
think or make a move for self-protection she 
dashed into his hair and tore it with her claws 
and flew back against her enemy. This polluted 
and disgraced Maui-nui. 

This time she whirled around the left side. 
He struck at her. As his wing was spread out 
she flew in and broke it, so that it fell useless by 
his side. Then she struck his eye, and he was 



242 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

entirely blind. She dashed against him, and he 
fell over. She clawed and picked and tore his 
body until it was in small pieces and his life was 
destroyed. 

The people shouted with a loud voice: ^^ Auwe! 
Auwe! [Alas! Alas!] The rooster of the king of 
Maui is dead! Ke-au-hele-moa is dead! The 
king of Maui is to die!" 

The name of this rooster, it is said, was given 
to a place far up Palolo Valley, near Honolulu. 

When the people shouted, Kauilani stood up 
in his splendid cloak and sash and cried out: 
^'Aye! Aye! Dead to me — dead to Kauilani, the 
child of Keahua and Kauhao!" 

His sister flew to him and he took her and 
disappeared in the confused, moving crowd of 
excited people. Thus they returned to Ka- 
palama. 

At that time Kakuhihewa learned who the 
yoimg man was, and was glad that he had not 
treated him imcivilly in any way and so lost his 
wonderful aid. He was very, very thankful for 
his victory over the king of Maui. 

He ordered his servants to find Kauilani, but 
they could not. He was fully lost. 

Wailuku, the wife of Maui-nui, asked Ka- 
kuhihewa what he intended to do with them. 

He replied: "I will not kill. I am for life. I 
do not know how to make a man. I do not want 




WEARING THE LEI 



LEPE-A-MOA 243 

death. If you had won, you should have your 
desire. Now I will have life as my wish." 

Maui-nui returned to his island, but his wife 
remained with her brother. 

The king ordered his people to make search 
everywhere for Kauilani. They went to Kauai, 
but he had not returned to his parents. They 
visited Maui and Hawaii, but found no trace. 
For several months the search was prosecuted. 
Even the mountains, hills, valleys, forests, 
jungles and caves were looked over as carefully 
as possible. By and by two chiefs, Kou and 
Waikiki, saw the signs of a high chief over Ka- 
palama's group of houses, and went up to make 
inquiries. They saw Kauilani and told him 
that the king wanted him to come back. 

Lepe-a-moa said: ^^You must reveal yoiu"self, 
and you must go back to that wife. Her time 
has come." 

Kauilani sent the chiefs, Kou and Waikiki, 
back to the king with the message that he 
would follow the next day. 

In the morning he met the king, who said: 
'^This year I have been near to death and 
from you came life, and you have been lost, 
to my sorrow. Now my daughter's child is 
near birth, perhaps you can give life to your 
child." 

Kauilani went to his wife's home. The 



244 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

caretakers refused to let him give any aid until 
they had tried all their arts and failed. 

Then Kauilani sent all the people away and 
stood alone by his wife, uttering his chant or in- 
cantation of life for the sick one: 

* * O Aumakuas ! Ghost gods ! 
Come from the north, the south, the east, the west. 
Male and female and children, 
Come for this cry of distress. 
O all those who have power in the skies! 
Come in this time of death. 

all the household of Kapalama! 
Come and give life. 

1 am Kauilani, 

The strong child of Keahua and Kauhao. 
Life for the mother and this child.' ^ 

While he was chanting this prayer the child 
was born. Lepe-a-moa saw that her brother 
was very busy before the gods, so she secretly 
took the child and hurried to Kapalama. 

That day there were fierce storms, resounding 
thimder and flashing lightning, while the land 
shook in the throes of an earthquake. These 
were the signs usually accompanying the birth 
of any high chief or chief ess. 

Kakuhihewa was troubled when he knew 
that the child had disappeared, but was satis- 
fied when he learned that it was with Kapalama 
and Lepe-a-moa. 



LEPE-A-MOA 



24S 



The baby was a girl and very beautiful, so 
Lepe-a-moa adopted it as her own and gave it 
the name of Kamamo. 

Kauilani lived with his wife, making his home 
all the rest of his life in the court of his father-in- 
law, Kakuhihewa. 





246 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

XXV 

KAMAPUAA LEGENDS 

Legends of the Hog-god 

!)OME of the most unique legends of the 
nations have centered around imag- 
ined monsters. Centaurs, half man 
and half horse, thronged the dreams of Rome. 
The Hawaiians knew nothing about any animals 
save the fish of the seas, the birds of the forests, 
and the chickens, the dogs and the pigs around 
their homes. From the devouring shark the 
Hawaiian imagination conceived the idea of the 
shark-man who indulged in cannibalistic tenden- 
cies. From the devastations of the hogs they 
built up the ejsperiences of an rude vicious chief 
whom they called Kamapuaa, who was the prin- 
cipal figure of many rough exploits throughout 
the islands. Sometimes he had a hog's body 
with a human head and limbs, sometimes a 
hog's head rested on a human form, and some- 
times he assumed the shape of a hog — quickly 
reassuming the form of a man. Kalakaua's 
legends say that he was a hairy man and culti- 
vated the stiff hair by cutting it short so that 
it stood out like bristles, and that he had his 



KAMAPUAA LEGENDS 247 

body tattooed so that it would have the appear- 
ance of a hog. In place of the ordinary feather 
cloak worn by chiefs he wore a pigskin with 
its bristles on the outside and a pigskin girdle 
around his waist. 

The legends say that he was born at Kaluanui, 
a part of the district of Hauula or Koolau coast of 
the island Oahu. His reputed father was Olo- 
pana, the high chief of that part of the island, 
and his mother was Hina, the daughter of a chief 
who had come from a foreign land. Other legends 
say that his father was Kahikiula (The Red 
Tahiti), a brother of Olopana. These brothers 
had come to Oahu from foreign lands some time 
before. Fornander always speaks of Olopana as 
Kamapuaa's uncle, although he had taken Hina 
as his wife. 

The Koolauloa coast of Oahu lies as a lux- 
uriant belt of ever-living foliage a mile or so in 
width between an ocean of many colors and 
dark beetling precipices of mountain walls 
rising some thousands of feet among the clouds. 

From these precipices which mark the land- 
ward side of a mighty extinct crater come many 
mountain streams leaping in cascades of spray 
down into the quiet green valleys which quickly 
broaden into the coral-reef-bordered seacoast. 
From any place by the sea the outline of several 
beautiful little valleys can be easily traced. 



248 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

One morning while the sunlight of May looked 
into the hidden recesses and crevices of these 
valleys, bringing into sharp relief of shadow 
and light the outcropping ledges, a little band 
of Hawaiians and their white friends lay in the 
shade of a great kamani* tree and talked about 
the legends which were told of the rugged rock 
masses of each valley, and the quiet pools of 
each rivulet. Where the little party lay was 
one of the sporting-places of Kamapuaa the 
"hog-child treated in the legends as a demi- 
god/' Not far away one of the mountain streams 
had broadened into a quiet bush-shaded lakelet 
with deep fringes of grass around its borders. 
Here the legendary hog-man with marvellous 
powers had bathed from time to time. A narrow 
gorge deep shadowed by the morning sim was 
the place which Kamapuaa had miraculously 
bridged for his followers when an enemy was 
closely pursuing them. Several large stones on 
the edges of the valleys were pointed out as 
the monuments of various adventures. An 
exquisitely formed little valley ran deep into 
the mountain almost in front of the legend-tellers. 
Far away in the upper end where the dark-green 
foliage blended with still darker shadows the 
sides of the valley narrowed until they were 
only from sixty to seventy feet apart, and un- 

* Calophyllum Inophyllum. 



KAMAPUAA LEGENDS 249 

scalable precipices bent toward each other, 
leaving only a narrow strip of sky above. On 
the right of this valley is a branch-gorge down 
which fierce storms have hurled torrents of 
waters and mist. The upper end has been hol- 
lowed and polished in the shape of a finely 
rounded canoe of immense proportions. It 
was from this that the valley took its name 
Ka-liu-waa, possibly having the meaning, ''the 
leaky canoe." Some of the legends say that 
this was Kamapuaa's canoe leaning against 
the precipice and always leaking out the waters 
w^hich fell in it. Lying toward the west was a 
very fertile and open tract of land, Kaluanui, 
where Kamapuaa was said to have been born 
of Hina. After his birth he was thrown away 
by Kahiki-houna-kele, an older brother, and left 
to die. After a time Hina, the mother, went 
to a stream of clear, sweet water near her home 
to bathe. After bathing she went to the place 
where she had left her pa-u, or tapa skirt, and 
found a fine little hog lying on it. She picked 
it up and found that it was a baby. She was 
greatly alarmed, and gave the hog-child to 
another son, Kekelaiaika, that he might care 
for it, but the older brother stole the hog-child 
and carried it away to a cave in which Hina's 
mother lived. Her name was Kamaunuaniho. 
The grandmother knew the hog-child at once 



2 so LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

as her grandson endowed with marvellous 
powers, and since the gods had given him the 
form of a hog he should be called kama (child), 
puaa (hog). Then she gave to the older brother 
kapa quilts in which to place Kamapuaa. These 
were made in layers; six sheets of kapa cloth 
formed the under quilt for a bed and six sheets 
the upper quilt for a cover. In these Kamapuaa 
slept while his brother prepared taro* and bread- 
fruit for his food. Thus the wonderful hog ate 
and slept usually in the form of a hog until 
size and strength came to him. Then he became 
mischievous and began to commit depredations 
at night. He would root up the taro in the 
fields of his neighbors, and especially in the field 
of the high chief Olopana. Then he would carry 
the taro home, root up ferns and grass imtil 
he had good land and then plant the stolen taro. 
Thus his grandmother and her retainers were 
provided with growing taro, the source of which 
they did not understand. 

His elder brother prepared an oven in which 
to cook chickens. Kamapuaa rooted up the oven 
and stole the chickens. This brother Kahiki- 
houna-kele caught the hog-child and administered 
a sound whipping, advising him to go away 
from home if he wanted to steal, and especially 
to take what he wanted from Olopana. Adopt- 
ing this advice, Kamapuaa extended his raids 

*Calocasia antiquorum. 



KAMAFUAA LEGENDS 251 

to the home of the high chief. Here he found 
many chickens. Kamapuaa quickly killed some, 
took them in his mouth and threw many more 
on his back and ran home. The morning came 
before he had gone far and the people along 
the way saw the strange sight and pursued him. 
By the use of charms taught him by his sorceress- 
grandmother he made himself run faster and 
faster until he had outstripped his pursuer. 
Then he carried his load to his grandmother^s 
cave and gave the chickens to the family for a 
great luau (feast). 

Another time he stole the sacred rooster be- 
longing to Olopana, as well as many other fowls. 
The chief sent a large number of warriors after 
him. They chased the man who had been seen 
carrying the chickens. He fled by his grand- 
mother's cave and threw the chickens inside, 
then fled back up the hillside, revealing himself 
to his pursuers. They watched him, but he dis- 
appeared. He dropped down by the side of a 
large stone. On this he seated hiinself and 
watched the people as they ran through the 
valley calling to each other. The high grass 
was around the stone so that for a long time he 
was concealed. For this reason this stone 
still bears the name Pohaku-pee-o-Kamapuaa 
(Kamapuaa 's-hiding-stone). After a time a man 
who had climbed to the opposite ridge cried 



252 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

out, '^E, E, there he is sitting on the great 
stone!'' This man was turned into a stone 
by the magic of Kamapuaa. The pursuers 
hastened up the hillside and surrounded the 
stone, but no man was there. There was a 
fine black hog, which they recognized as the 
wonderful one belonging to Kamaunuaniho. So 
they decided that this was the thief, and seized 
it and carried it down the hill to give to the 
high chief Olopana. After getting him down into 
the valley they tried to drive him, but he would 
not go. Then they sent into the forest for 
ohia poles and made a large litter. It required 
many men to carry this enormous hog, who made 
himself very heavy. 

Suddenly Kamapuaa heard his grandmother 
calling: ''Break the cords! Break the poles! 
Break the strong men ! Escape 1 ' ' Making a sud- 
den turn on the litter, he broke it in pieces and fell 
with it to the ground. Then he burst the cords 
which bound him and attacked the band of men 
whom he had permitted to capture him. Some 
legends say that he killed and ate many of them. 
Others say that he killed and tore the people. 

The wild life lived by Kamapuaa induced a large 
band of rough lawless men to leave the service 
of the various high chiefs and follow Kamapuaa 
in his marauding expeditions. They made them- 
selves the terror of the whole Koolau region. 




IN KAPIOLANI PARK 



KAMAPUAA LEGENDS 253 

Olopana determined to destroy them, and sent 
an army of four hundred warriors to uproot 
Kamapuaa and his robbers. It was necessary 
for them to hasten to their hiding-places, but 
they were chased up into the hills until a deep 
gorge faced them. No way of escape seemed 
possible, but Kamapuaa, falling on the ground, 
became a long hog — stretching out he increased 
his length until he could reach from side to side 
of the deep ravine — thus he formed a bridge 
over which his followers escaped. 

Kamapuaa, however, was not able to make 
himself small quickly enough to escape from his 
enemies. He tried to hide himself in a hole and 
pull dead branches and leaves over himself; but 
they soon found him, bound him securely, and 
tied him to a great stone which with ^Hhe 
stone of hiding'' and ^^the watcher" are monu- 
ments of the legends to this day. 

The people succeeded in leading the hog-man 
to Olopana's home, where they fastened him, 
keeping him for a great feast, which they hoped 
to have in a few days, but Kamapuaa, Samson- 
like, broke all his bonds, destroyed many of 
his captors — wantonly destroyed coconut-trees 
and taro patches, and then went back to his 
home. 

He knew that Olopana would use every en- 
deavor to compass his destruction. So he 



254 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

called his followers together and led them up 
Kaliuwaa Valley, stopping to get his grandmother 
on the way. When he came to the end of the 
valley, and the steep cliffs up which his people 
could not possibly climb, he took his grandmother 
on his neck and leaned back against the great 
precipice. Stretching himself more and more, 
and rubbing against the black rocks, at last he 
Ufted his grandmother to the top of the cliffs so 
that she could step off on the uplands which 
sloped down to the Pearl Harbor side of the 
island. Then the servants and followers climbed 
up the sides of the great hog by clinging to his 
bristles and escaped. The hollow worn in the 
rocks looked like a hewn-out canoe, and was 
given the name Ka-waa-o-Kamapuaa (The canoe 
of Kamapuaa). Kamapuaa then dammed up 
the water of the beautiful stream by throwing his 
body across it, and awaited the coming of 
Olopana and his warriors. 

An immense force had been sent out to destroy 
him. In addition to the warriors who came by 
land, a great fleet of canoes was sent along the 
seashore to capture any boats in which Kama- 
puaa and his people might try to escape. 

The canoes gathered in and around the mouth 
of the stream which flowed from Kaliuwaa 
Valley. The warriors began to march along the 
stream up toward the deep gorge. Suddenly 



KAMAPUAA LEGENDS 255 

Kamapuaa broke the dam by leaping away from 
the waters, and a great flood drowned the war- 
riors, and dashed the canoes together, destroying 
many and driving the rest far out to sea. 
Uhakolii is said to be the place where this flood 
occurred. 

Then Kamapuaa permitted the people to 
capture him. They went up the valley after 
the waters had subsided and found nothing 
left of Kamapuaa or his people except a small 
black hog. They searched the valley thoroughly. 
They found the canoe, turned to stone, leaning 
against the precipice at the end of the gorge. 
They said among themselves, *' Escaped is 
Kamapuaa with all his people, and ended are our 
troubles." 

They caught the hog and bound it to carry to 
Olopana. As they journeyed along the sea- 
shore their burden became marvellously heavy 
until at last an immense litter was required 
resting on the shoulders of many men. It was 
said that he sometimes tossed himself over to 
one side, breaking it down and killing some 
of the men who carried him. Then again he rolled 
to the other side, bringing a like destruction. 
Thus he brought trouble and death and a long, 
weary journey to his captors, who soon learned 
that their captive was the hog-man Kamapuaa. 
They brought him to their king Olopana and 



2S6 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

placed him in the temple enclosure where sacri- 
fices to the gods were confined. This heiau was 
in Kaneohe and was known as the heiau of Ka- 
waewae. It was in the care of a priest known as 
Lonoaohi. 

Long, long before this capture Olopana had 
discovered Kamapuaa and would not acknowl- 
edge him as his son. The destruction of his 
coconut-trees and taro patches had been the 
cause of the first violent rupture between the 
two, Kamapuaa had wantonly broken the walls 
of Olopana's great fish-pond and set the fish 
free, and then after three times raiding the fowls 
around the grass houses had seized, killed and 
eaten the sacred rooster which Olopana con- 
sidered his household fetish. 

When Olopana knew that Kamapuaa had been 
captured and was lying bound in the temple 
enclosure he sent orders that great care should 
be taken lest he escape, and later he should be 
placed on the altar of sacrifice before the great 
gods. 

Hina, it was said, could not bear the thought 
that this child of hers, brutal and injurious as he 
was, should suffer as a sacrifice. She was a very 
high chiefess, and, Uke the Hinas throughout 
Polynesia, was credited with divine powers. 
She had great influence with the high priest 
Lonoaohi and persuaded him to give Ka- 



KAMAPUAA LEGENDS 257 

mapuaa an opportunity to escape. This was 
done by killing a black hog and smearing Ka- 
mapuaa's body with the blood. Thus bearing 
the appearance of death, he was laid unbound on 
the altar. It was certain that unless detected 
he could easily climb the temple wall and escape. 

Olopana, the king, came to offer the chants and 
prayers which belonged to such a sacrifice. He 
as well as the high priest had temple duties, 
and the privilege of serving at sacrifices of great 
importance. As was his custom he came from 
the altar repeating chants and prayers while 
Kamapuaa lay before the images of the gods. 
While he was performing the sacrificial rites, 
Kamapuaa became angry, leaped from the altar, 
changed himself into his own form, seized the 
bone daggers used in dismembering the sacrifices, 
and attacked Olopana, striking him again and 
again, until he dropped on the floor of the temple 
dead. The horrified priests had been powerless 
to prevent the deed, nor did they think of 
striking Kamapuaa down at once. In the con- 
fusion he rushed from the temple, fled along the 
coast to his well-known valleys, climbed the 
steep precipices and rejoined his grandmother 
and his followers. 

Leading his band of rough robbers down 
through the sandalwood* forests of the Wahiawa 
region, he crossed over the plains to the Waianae 

*IliahiorSantalum. 



258 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

Mountains. Here they settled for a time, 
living in caves. Other lawless spirits joined them, 
and they passed along the Ewa side of the island, 
ravaging the land like a herd of swine. A part 
of the island they conquered, making the in- 
habitants their serfs. 

Here on a spur of the Waianae Mountains they 
built a residence for Kama-unu-aniho, and 
established her as their priestess, or kahuna. 
They levied on the neighboring farmers for 
whatever taro, sweet-potatoes* and bananas they 
needed. They compelled the fishermen to bring 
tribute from the sea. They surrounded their 
homes with pigs and chickens, and in mere 
wantonness terrorized that part of Oahu. 



^ 



Kamapuaa on Oahu and EIauai 

Fornander says that Kamapuaa was some- 
times called ''the eight-eyed" and was also 
gifted with eight feet. He says, "This spe- 
cialty of four faces or heads and of correspond- 
ing limbs is peculiar to sortie of the principal 
Hindoo deities.'' The honorary designation 
of gods and even high chiefs in Hawaiian my- 
thology was frequently maka-walu (eight-eyed), 

•Ipomea Batatas. 





"i 



RICE FIELDS AXI) COCONUT -TRLL.- .\il 



KAMAPUAA LEGENDS 259 

to express their great endowment of divine 
powers. Fornander notes '^coincidence as bear- 
ing upon the derivation of Polynesian myths and 
legends. The Kamapuaa stories, however, seem 
to have no counterpart in any mythology beyond 
the borders of the Hawaiian Islands.'' 

While he lived on the Koolau coast he was 
simply a devastating, brutal monster, with 
certain powers belonging to a demi-god, which 
he used as maliciously as possible. After being 
driven out to the Honolulu side of the mountains, 
for a time he led his band of robbers in their 
various expeditions, but after a time his miracu- 
lous powers increased and he went forth ter- 
rorizing the island from one end to the other. 
He had the power of changing himself into any 
kind of a fish. As a shark and as a hog he 
was represented as sometimes eating those whom 
he conquered in battle. He ravaged the fields 
and chicken preserves of the different chiefs, 
but it is said never stole or ate pigs or fish. 

He wandered along the low lands from the 
taro patches of Ewa to the coconut groves of 
Waikiki, rooting up and destroying the food 
of the people. 

At Kamoiliili he saw two beautiful women 
coming from the stream which flows from Manoa 
Valley. He called to them, but when they saw 
his tattooed body and rough clothing made from 



26o LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

pigskins they recognized him and fled. He pur- 
sued them, but they were counted as goddesses, 
having come from divine foreign families as 
well as Kamapuaa. They possessed miraculous 
powers and vanished when he was ready to 
place his hands upon them. They sank down 
into the earth. Kamapuaa changed himself 
into the form of a great hog and began to root 
up the stones and soil and break his way through 
the thick layer of petrified coral through which 
they had disappeared. He first followed the 
descent of the woman who had been nearest to 
him. Down he went through soil and stone after 
her, but suddenly a great flood of water burst 
upward through the coral almost drowning him. 
The goddess had stopped his pursuit by turning 
an underground stream into the entrance which 
he had made.* 

After this narrow escape Kamapuaa rushed 
toward Manoa Valley to the place where he had 
seen the other beautiful woman disappear. 
Here also he rooted deep through earth and coral, 
and here again a new spring of living water was 
uncovered. He could do nothing against the 
flood, which threatened his life. The goddesses 
escaped and the two wells have suppUed the 
people of Kamoiliili for many generations, bear- 
ing the name, "The wells, or fountains, of 
Kamapuaa." 

• Near the Kamoiliili church. 



KAMAPUAA LEGENDS 261 

The chief of Waikiki had a fine tract* well 
supplied with bananas and coconuts and taro. 
Night after night a great black hog rushed 
through Waikiki destroying all the ripening 
fruit and even going to the very doors of the 
grass houses searching out the calabashes filled 
with poi waiting for fermentation. These cala- 
bashes he dashed to the ground, defiling their 
contents and breaking and unfitting them for 
further use. A crowd of warriors rushed out to 
kill this devastating monster. They struck him 
with clubs and hurled their spears against his 
bristling sides. The stiff bristles deadened the 
force of the blows of the clubs and turned 
the spear-points aside so that he received but 
little injury. Meanwhile his fierce tusks were 
destroying the warriors and his cruel jaws 
were tearing their flesh and breaking their bones. 
In a short time the few who were able to escape 
fled from him. The chiefs gathered their war- 
riors again and again, and after many battles 
drove Kamapuaa from cave to cave and from 
district to district. Finally he leaped into the 
sea, changed himself into the form of a fish 
and passed over the channel to Kauai. 

He swam westward along the coast, selecting 
a convenient place for landing, and when night 
came, sending the people to their sleep, he went 

• Near the Cleghom residence. 



262 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

ashore. He had marked the location of taro 
and sugar-cane patches and could easily find them 
in the night. Changing himself into a black 
hog he devoured and trampled the sugar-cane, 
rooted up taro and upset calabashes, eating 
the poi and breaking the wooden bowls. Then 
he fled to a rough piece of land which he had 
decided upon as his hiding-place. 

The people were astonished at the devasta- 
tion when they came from their houses next 
morning. Only gods who were angry could 
have wrought such havoc so unexpectedly, 
therefore they sent sacrifices to the heiaus, that 
the gods of their homes might protect them. 
But the next night other fields were made 
desolate as if a herd of swine had been wantonly 
at work all through the night. After a time 
watchmen were set around the fields and the 
mighty hog was seen. The people were called. 
They surrounded Kamapuaa, caught him and 
tied him with strongest cords of olona* fibre and 
pulled him to one side, that on the new day so 
soon to dawn they might build their oven and 
roast him for a great feast. 

When they thought all was finished the hog 
suddenly burst his bonds, became invisible and 
leaped upon them, tore them and killed them 
as he had done on Oahu, then rushed away in 
the darkness. 

*Touchardia latifolia. 



KAMAPUAA LEGENDS 263 

Again some watchers found him lying at the 
foot of a steep precipice, sleeping in the day- 
time. On the edge of the precipice were great 
boulders, which they rolled down upon him, but 
he was said to have allowed the stones to strike 
him and fall shattered in pieces while he sus- 
tained very Uttle injury. 

Then he assumed the form of a man and made 
his home by a ledge of rock called Kipukai. 
Here there was a spring of very sweet water, 
which lay in the form of a placid pool of clear 
depths, reflecting wonderfully whatever shadows 
fell upon its surface. To this two beautiful sis- 
ters were in the habit of coming with their 
water-calabashes. While they stooped over the 
water Kamapuaa came near and cast the shadow 
as a man before them on the clear waters. They 
both wanted the man as their husband who 
could cast such a shadow. He revealed himself 
to them and took them both to be his wives. 
They lived with him at Kipukai and made fine 
sleeping mats for him, cultivated food and pre- 
pared it for him to eat. They pounded kapa 
that he might be well clothed. 

At that time there were factions on the island 
of Kauai warring against each other. Fierce 
hand-to-hand battles were waged and rich spoils 
carried away. 

With the coming of Kamapuaa to Kauai a new 



264 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

and strange appearance wrought terror in the 
hearts of the warriors whenever a battle occurred. 
While the conflict was going on and blows were 
freely given by both club and spear, suddenly 
a massive war-club would be seen whistling 
through the air, striking down the chiefs of both 
parties. Mighty blows were struck by this 
mysterious club. No hand could be seen hold- 
ing it, no strong arm swinging it, and no chief 
near it save those stricken by it. Dead and 
dying warriors covered the ground in its path. 
Sometimes when Kamapuaa had been caught in 
his marauding expedition, he would escape from 
the ropes tying him, change into a man, seize a 
club, become invisible and destroy his captors. 
He took from the fallen their rich feather war 
cloaks, carried them to his dwelling-place and 
concealed them under his mats. The people of 
Kauai were terrified by the marvellous and power- 
ful being who dwelt in their midst. They be- 
lieved in the ability of kahunas, or priests, to 
work all manner of evil in strange ways and there- 
fore were sure that some priest was working with 
evil spirits to compass their destruction. They 
sought the strongest and most sacred of their own 
kahunas, but were unable to conquer the evil. 
Meanwhile Kamapuaa, tired of the two wives, 
began to make life miserable for them, trying 
to make them angry, that he might have good 



KAMAPUAA LEGENDS 26$ 

excuse for killing them. They knew something 
of his marvellous powers as a demi-god, and 
w^atched him when he brought bundles to his 
house and put them away. The chief's house 
then as in later years was separated from the 
houses of the women and was tabu to them, but 
they waited until they had seen him go far away. 
Then they searched his house and found the war 
cloaks of their friends under his mats. They 
hastened and told their friends, who plotted to 
take vengeance on their enemy. 

The women decided to try to drive the demi- 
god away, so destroyed the spring of water from 
which they had daily brought water for his need. 
They also carefully concealed all evidences of 
other springs. Kamapuaa returned from his 
adventures and was angry when he found no 
water waiting for him. He called for the women, 
but they had hidden themselves. He was very 
thirsty. He rushed to the place of the spring, 
but could not find it. He looked for water here 
and there, but the sisters had woven mighty 
spells over all the water-holes and he could not see 
them. In his rage he rushed about like a blind 
and crazy man. Then the sisters appeared and 
ridiculed him. They taunted him with his failure 
to overcome their wiles. They laughed at his 
suffering. Then in his great anger he leaped 
upon them, caught them and threw them over a 



266 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

precipice. As they fell upon the ground he 
uttered his powerful incantations and changed 
them into two stones, which for many generations 
have been guardians of that precipice. Then he 
assumed the form of a hog and rooted deep in 
the rocky soil. Soon he uncovered a fountain of 
water from which he drank deeply, but which he 
later made bitter and left as a mineral-spring to 
the present day. 

The people of Kauai now knew the secret of 
the wonderful swinging war club. They knew 
that a hand held it and an invisible man walked 
beside it, so they fought against a power which 
they could not see. They felt their clubs strike 
some solid body even when they struck at the air. 
Courage came back to them, and at Hanalei the 
people forced him into a corner, and, carrying 
stones, tried to fence him in, but he broke the 
walls down, tore his way through the people and 
fled. The high chief of Hanalei threw his magic 
spear at him as he rushed past, but missed him. 
The spear struck the mountain-side near the 
summit and passed through, leaving a great hole 
through which the sky on the other side of the 
mountain can still be seen. Kamapuaa decided 
that he was tired of Kauai, therefore he ran to 
the seashore, leaped into the water and, becoming 
a fish, swam away to Hawaii. 



KAMA PU A A LEGENDS 267 



^ 



Pele and Kamapuaa 

The three great mountains of Hawaii had 
been built many centuries before Pele foimd 
an abiding home in the pit of Kilauea. Ki- 
lauea itself appears rather as a shelter to which 
she fled than as a house of her own building. 
The sea waters quenched the fires built by her 
at lower levels, forcing her up higher and higher 
toward the mountains imtil she took refuge in 
the maelstrom of eternal fire known for centuries 
among the Hawaiians as Ka lua o Pele (The pit 
of Pele), — the boiling centre of the active pit of 
fire. Some legends say that Kamapuaa drove 
Pele from place to place by pouring in water. 

The Kalakaua legends probably give the 
correct idea of the growths of Pele-worship as 
the goddess of volcanic fires when they say that 
the Pele family of brave and venturesome high 
chiefs with their followers settled under the 
shadows of the smoke-clouds from Kilauea 
and were finally destroyed by some overwhelm- 
ing eruption. And yet the destruction was so 
spectacular, or at least so mysterious, that the 
idea took firm root that Pele and her brothers 
and sisters, instead of passing out of existence, 



268 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

entered into the volcano to dwell there as livmg 
spirits having the fires of the under-world as 
their continual heritage. From this home of fire 
Pele and her sisters could come forth assuming 
the forms in which they had been seen as human 
beings. This power has been the cause of many 
legends about Pele and her adventures with 
various chiefs whom she at last overwhelmed 
with boiling floods of lava tossed out of her 
angry heart. In this way she appeared in 
different parts of the island of Hawaii apparently 
no longer having any fear of danger to her home 
from incoming seas. 

The last great battle between sea and fire was 
connected with Pele as a fire-goddess and Ka- 
mapuaa, the demi-god, part hog and part man. 
It is a curious legend in which human and divine 
elements mingle like the changing scenes of a 
dream. This naturally follows the statement in 
some of the legends that Ku, one of the highest 
gods among the Polynesians as well as among 
the Hawaiians, was an ancestor of Kamapuaa, 
protecting him and giving him the traits of a 
demi-god. Kamapuaa had passed through many 
adventures on the islands of Oahu and Kauai, 
and had lived for a time on Maui. He had, 
according to some of the legends, developed his 
mysterious powers so that he could become a 
fish whenever he wished, so sometimes he was 



KAMAPUAA LEGENDS 269 

represented as leaping into the sea, diving down 
to great depth, and swimming imtil he felt the 
approach of rising land, then he would come to 
the surface, call out the name of the island and 
go ashore for a visit with the inhabitants or dive 
again and pass on to another island. Thus he 
is represented as passing to Hawaii after his ad- 
ventures on the islands of Kauai and Oahu. 

On Hawaii he entered into the sports of the 
chiefs, gambling, boxing, surf-riding, rolling the 
round ulu maika stone and riding the holua 
(sled). Here he learned about the wonderful 
princess from the islands of the southern seas 
who had made her home in the fountains of 
fire. 

Some of the legends say that he returned to 
Oahu, gathered a company of adherents and 
then visited the Pele family as a chief of high 
rank, winning her as his bride and living with 
her some time, then separating and dividing the 
island of Hawaii between them, Pele taking the 
southern part of the island as the scene for her 
terrific eruptions, and Kamapuaa ruUng over the 
north, watering the land with gentle showers or 
with melting snow, or sometimes with fierce 
storms, until for many centuries fertile fields 
have rewarded the toil of man. 

The better legends send Kamapuaa alone to 
the contest with the fire-goddess, winning her for 



270 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

a time and then entering into a struggle in 
which both lives were at stake. 

It is said that one morning when the tops of 
the mountains were painted by the sunlight from 
the sea, and the shadows in the valley were 
creeping under the leaves of the trees of the 
forests, that Pele and her sisters went down 
toward the hills of Puna. These sisters were 
known as the Hiiakas, defined by Ellis, who 
gives the first account of them, as "The cloud- 
holders." Each one had a descriptive title, 
thus Hiiaka-noho-lani was "The heaven-dwell- 
ing cloud-holder,'' Hiiaka-i-ka-poli-o-Pele was 
"The cloud-holder in the bosom of Pele." There 
were at least six Hiiakas, and some legends give 
many more. 

That morning they heard the sound of a 
drum in the distance. It was the tum-tum- 
tum of a hula. Filled with curiosity they 
turned aside to see what strangers had invaded 
their territory. One of the sisters, looking over 
the plain to a hill not far away, called out, 
"What a handsome man!" and asked her sisters 
to mark the finely formed athletic stranger who 
was dancing gloriously outlined in the splendor 
of the morning light. 

Pele scornfully looked and said she saw nothing 
but a great hog-man, whom she would quickly 
drive from her dominions. Then began the 



KAMAPUAA LEGENDS 271 

usual war of words with which rival chiefs 
attacked each other. Pele taunted Kamapuaa, 
calling him a hog and ascribing to him the 
characteristics belonging to swine. Kamapuaa 
became angry and called Pele ^'the woman with 
red burning eyes, and an angry heart unfit to 
be called a chief ess." Then Pele in her wrath 
stamped on the ground until earthquakes shook 
the land around Kamapuaa and a boiling stream 
of lava rolled down from the mountains above. 
The stranger, throwing around him the finest 
tapa, stood unmoved until the flood of fire 
began to roll up the hill on which he stood. 
Then raising his hands and uttering the strong- 
est incantations he called for heavy rains to 
fall. Soon the lava became powerless in the 
presence of the stranger. Then Pele tried her 
magical powers to see if she could subdue this 
stranger, but his invocations seemed to be stronger 
than those falling from her lips, and she gave up 
the attempt to destroy him. Pele was always a 
cruel, revengeful goddess, sweeping away those 
against whom her wrath might be kindled, even 
if they were close friends of her household. 

The sisters finally prevailed upon her to sen.d 
across to the hill inviting the stranger, who was 
evidently a high chief, to come and visit them. 
As the messenger started to bring the yoimg man 
to the sisters he stepped into the shadows, and 



272 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

the messenger found nothing but a small hog 
rooting among the ferns. This happened day 
after day until Pele determined to know this 
stranger chief who always succeeded in thoroughly 
hiding himself, no matter how carefully the mes- 
sengers might search. At last the chant of the 
hula and the dance of the sisters on the smooth 
pahoehoe* of a great extinct lava bed led the 
young man to approach. Pele revealed herself 
in her rare and tempting beauty, calling with a 
sweet voice for the stranger to come and rest 
by her side while her sisters danced. Soon 
Pele was overcome by the winning strength of 
this great chief, and she decided to marry him. 
So they dwelt together in great happiness for a 
time, sometimes making their home in one part 
of Puna and sometimes in another. The places 
where they dwelt are pointed out even at this 
day by the natives who know the traditions of 
Puna. 

But Kamapuaa had too many of the habits and 
instincts of a hog to please Pele, besides she was 
too quickly angry to suit the overbearing Kama- 
puaa. Pele was never patient even with her 
sisters, so with Kamapuaa she would burst into 
fiery rage, while taimts and bitter words were 
freely hurled back and forth. Then Pele stamped 
on the ground, the earth shook, cracks opened 

•Paboehoe, smooth lava. A-a, rough lava. 



KAMAPUAA LEGENDS 273 

in the surface and sometimes clouds of smoke 
and steam arose around Kamapuaa. He was 
unterrified and matched his divine powers 
against hers. It was demi-god against demi-god- 
dess. It was the goddess of fire of Hawaii against 
the hog-god of Oahu. Pele's home life was 
given up. The bitterness of strife swept over the 
black sands of the seashore. When the earth 
seemed ready to open its doors and pour out 
mighty streams of flowing lava in the defence of 
Pele, Kamapuaa called for the waters of the 
ocean to rise. Then flood met fire and quenched 
it. Pele was driven inland. Her former lover, 
hastening after her and striving to overcome her, 
followed her upward until at last amid clouds 
of poisonous gases she went back into her spirit 
home in the pit of Kdlauea. 

Then Kamapuaa as a god of the sea gathered 
the waters together in great masses and hurled 
them into the firepit. Violent explosions fol- 
lowed the inrush of waters. The sides of the 
great crater were torn to pieces by fierce earth- 
quakes. Masses of fire expanded the water into 
steam, and Pele gathered the forces of the under- 
world to aid in driving back Kamapuaa. The 
lavas rose in many lakes and foimtains. Rapidly 
the surface was cooled and the fountains checked, 
but just as rapidly were new openings made and 
new streams of fire hurled at the demi-god of 



274 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

Oahu. It was a mighty battle of the elements. 
The legends say that the hog-man, Kamapuaa, 
poured water into the crater until its fires were 
driven back to their lowest depths and Pele was 
almost drowned by the floods. The clouds of 
the skies had dropped their burden of rain. All 
the waters of the sea that Kamapuaa could col- 
lect had been poured into the crater. Fornander 
gives a part of the prayer of Kamapuaa against 
Pele. His appeal was directly to the gods of 
water for assistance. He cried for 

. . . "The great storm clouds of skie," 
while Pele prayed for 

"The bright gods of the under- world, 
The gods thick-clustered for Pele." 

It was the duty of the Pele family to stir up 
volcanic action, create explosions, hurl lava into 
the air, make earthquakes, blow out clouds of 
flames and smoke and sulphurous-burdened 
fimies agamst all enemies of Pele. Into the con- 
flict against Kamapuaa rushed the gods of Po, 
the under-world, armed with spears of flashing 
fire, and hurling sling-stones of lava. The 
storms of bursting gases and falling lavas were 
more than Kamapuaa could endure. Gasping 
for breath and overwhelmed with heat, he 
found himself driven back. The legends say 
that Pele and her sisters drank the waters, so 



KAMAPUAA LEGENDS 275 

that after a time there was no check against the 
uprising lava. The pit was filled and the streams 
of fire flowed down upon Kamapuaa. He 
changed his body into a kind of grass now 
known as Ku-kae-puaa, and tried to stop the 
flow of the lava. Apparently the grass repre- 
sented the bristles covering his body when he 
changed himself into a hog. Kamapuaa has 
sometimes been called the Samson of Hawaiian 
traditions, and it is possible that a Biblical idea 
has crept into the modern versions of the story. 
Delilah cut Samson's hair and he became weak. 
The Hawaiian traditions say that, if Kamapuaa's 
bristles could be burned off, he would lose his 
power to cope with Pele's forces of fire. When 
the grass lay in the pathway of the fire, the 
lava was turned aside for a time, but Pele, in- 
spired by the beginning of victory, called anew 
upon the gods of the under-world for strong 
reinforcements. 

Out from the pits of Kilauea came vast masses 
of lava piling up against the field of grass in its 
pathway and soon the grass began to burn; 
then Kamapuaa assumed again the shape of a 
man, the hair or bristles on his body were singed 
and the smart of many burns began to cause 
agony. Down he rushed to the sea, but the 
lava spread out on either side, cutting off retreat 
along the beach. Pele followed close behind, 



276 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 

striving to overtake him before he could reach 
the water. The side streams had reached the sea, 
and the water was rapidly heated into tossing, 
boiling waves. Pele threw great masses of lava 
at Kamapuaa, striking and churning the sea into 
which he leaped midst the swirling heated mass. 
Kamapuaa gave up the battle, and, thoroughly 
defeated, changed himself into a fish. To that 
fish he gave the tough pigskin which he assiuned 
when roaming over the islands as the hog-man. 
It was thick enough to stand the boiling waves 
through which he swam out into the deep sea. 
The Hawaiians say that this fish has always 
been able to make a noise like the grunting of a 
small pig. To this fish was given the name 
*' humu-himiu-nuku-nuku-a-puaa.'' 

It was said that Kamapuaa fled to foreign 
lands, where he married a high chiefess and lived 
with his family many years. At last the longing 
for his home-land came over him irresistibly and 
he returned appearing as a humu-humu in his 
divine place among the Hawaiian fishes, but never 
again taking to himself the form of a man. 

Since this conflict with Kamapuaa, Pele has 
never feared the powers of the sea. Again and 
again has she sent her lava streams over the 
territory surroimding her firepit in the volcano 
Kilauea, and has swept the seashore, even pour- 
ing her lavas into the deep sea, but the ocean 



KAMAPUAA LEGENDS 2^^ 

has never retaliated by entering into another 
conflict to destroy Pele and her servants. Ka- 
mapuaa was the last who poured the sea into 
the deep pit. The friends of Lohiau, a prince 
from the island of Kauai, waged warfare with 
Pele, tearing to pieces a part of the crater in 
which she dwelt; but it was a conflict of land 
forces, and in its entirety is one of the very 
interesting tales handed down by Hawaiian 
tradition. 

Kamapuaa figured to the last days of Pele- 
worship in the sacrifices offered to the fire-god- 
dess. The most acceptable sacrifice to Pele was 
supposed to be puaa (a hog). If a hog could not 
be secured when an offering was necessary, the 
priest would take the fish humu-humu-nuku- 
nuku-a-puaa and throw it into the pit of fire. If 
the hog and the fish both failed, the priest would 
offer any of the things into which, it was said in 
their traditions, Kamapuaa could turn himself. 

Note: For more Pele stories see the "Legends of Vol- 
canoes" by the author. 




APPENDIX 



PARTIAL LIST HAWAIIAN TERMS USED 



aa, 43. 

ahakea, 213. 

ahuula, 61. 

Aihualama, 129. 

Aikanaka, 176-193, 201; 

aka, 73. 

Akuapehuale, 205, 210-219. 

aloe, 239. 

Alala, 159. 

aloha, 114. 

Anahola, 186. 

Apuakehau, 177. 

aumakua, 64, 99, 117, 119, 130, 

216, 244. 
Avaiki, 4, 5. 
awa, 108, 109, 115. 
aweoweo, 160, 163. 

eepa, 19, 35, i74- 
Ehu, 66. 

Elepaio, 100, 174, 233. 
Ewa, 34, 177, 259. 

Hainoa, 108. 

Hakalaoa, 105. 

hala, 29, 60, 67, 128, 129. 

Halelea, 213. 

Halemanu, 178, 196, 202. 

Halenoa, 168. 

Hana. 188. 

Hanalei, 266. 

Hanamaulu, 188. 

Hanapepe, 186, 187. 

Hao, 16. 

hau, 122. 

Haumea, 10, 23, 24, 29, 35. 

Hauula, 140-145, 247. 

Hawaii, i, etc. 

Hawaiki, n, 13. 

heiau, 21, 27, 91-117, i35, 142, 

187, 229, 256. 
Hiiaka, 270. 
Hilo, 120. 
hilu, 144. 

Hina, 69, 213, 247, 256. 
Hinai, 124, 125. 



Hoahanau, 200, 201. 
Hoakola, 30. 

Honokaupu, 15, 17, 52-54. 
Honolulu, 14, 15, 30, 34, 62, 63, 

76, 87, 112, 115. 
Honouliuli, 205, 209, 224. 
Hoolohaloa, 76-78. 
Huhue, 163. 
hula, 34, 115, 179, 270. 
humu, 276-277. 

ieie, 60, loi, 
Ikaikaloa, 75-76. 
Ikeloa, 76, 79. 
Ikuwa, 73. 
Ilamuku, 2. 
iliahi, 67, 68. 
imu, 201, 206. 
ipukai, 199, 20I, 202. 
Iwa, 148-156. 

Kaakau, 105, 106. 
Kaauhau, 121. 
Kaawaloa, iii. 
Kaehu, 55-58. 
Kaeleha, 177, 188. 
Kaeleowaipio, 121. 
Kaena, 142, 159. 
Kahakaloa, 184. 
Kahala, 130. 
Kahala-o-Puna, 128. 
Kahaloa, 158. 
Kahamaluihi, 125, 160. 
Kahani, 19, 90-92, loi. 
Kahano, 19. 
Kahaukomo, 122. 
Kahehuna, 133. 
Kaheiki, 92, 95, 96. 
Kahiki, 19-37, 106. 
Kahikihounakele, 250. 
Kahikiku, 136. 
Kahikiula, 247. 
Kahiko, 7. 
kahili, 9. 
Kahilona, 92-96. 
Kahoiwai, 158. 



APPENDIX 



Kahuku, 142. 

kahuna, 96, 117, 130, 258, 210, 258. 

Kaihi-Kapu, 53. 

Kaili, 190. 

Kailua, 26, 122. 

Kaipapau, 145. 

Kaiwakalameha, 224. 

kakahee, 159. 

Kakei, 11 2-1 15. 

kakolele, 121. 

Kakuhihewa, 15-19, I34~i37, 158- 

167, 227-237. 
Kalaau, 107. 
kalaiaina, 121. 
Kalakaua, 246, 267. 
Kalaniopuu, 121-125. 
Kalapueo, 136. 
Kalaumeke, 177. 
Kalehuawike, 56, 107. 
Kalihi, 19, 3i-35» 40. 
Kaliuwaa, 249, 254. 
Kalo, 195. 
Kalokuna, 149. 
Kaluanui, 247, 249. 
Kamakau, 14, 18, 70, 72. 
Kamalama, 174-184. 
Kamamo, 245. 
kamani, 248. 
Kamapuaa, 35, 246-277. 
Kamaunuaniho, 249, 258. 
Kamehaikana, 29, 34. 
Kamehameha, 14-17= 21, 33, 41, 

no, 118, 122, 126, 148, 190. 
Kamohoalii, 35, 55. 
Kamoiliili, 87, 259, 260. 
Kanakamakeanu, 76, 80. 
Kanakamakewelu, 76, 81, 86. 
Kanaloa, 4-12, 37-42, 71-73, 94? 

95, 145, 224. 
Kane, 9, 10, 37-42, 46-57, 61, 71- 

73, 94, 95, '^S^y 145, 183, 224. 
Kaneohe, 256. 
Kanepuaa, 39. 
Kaohuwalu, 105. 
kapa, 59-69, 207, 229, 236, 250, 

263. 
Kapaa, 218. 
Kapahi, 150. 
Kapalaha, 135. 
Kapalama, 204, 210, 220. 
Kapana, 172. 
Kapapaulua, 141. 
Kapili, 123. 
KapOj 34. 
Kapoi, 132-137- 
Kapookame, 104. 
Kapuakamailoa, 171. 
Kapuni, 105-107. 



Kapupuu, 148. 

Kauahoa, 173-186. 

Kauai, 18, 21, 27, 109-136. 

Kauanonoula, 17. 

Kauhao, 204, 242, 244. 

Kauhola, 105. 

Kauhuhu, 193. 

Kauilani, 211-240. 

Kaumakapili, 21, 104. 

Kaupe, 93, 95. 

Kauwa, 16. 

Kauwaewae, 256. 

Kawaiahao, 16. 

Kawaihae, 108. 

Kawaikini, 205, 211, 215. 

Kawalo, 193. 

Kawelo, 21, 60, 173-188. 

Keaau, 149-152. 

Keahua, 204-213, 242, 244. 

Keaka, 18. 

Keakahulilani, 73. 

Kealaikahiki, 139. 

Kealii, 193, 194, 198, 199. 

Keaolewa, 207, 219, 228, 240. 

Keauhelemoa, 232, 233, 242. 

kekaiheehee, 16. 

Kekelaiaika, 249. 

Kekuanaoa, 17. 

Kewalo, 16, 20, 133. 

Kiha, 108-110. 

Kihapu, 20, 109, 118. 

kihei, 60. 

Kikoo, 157. 

Kilauea, 35, 120, 267, 273, 275. 

kilo, 121. 

Kilohana, 28. 

Kipukai, 263. 

koa, 97-102, 196. 

Koawa, Koawi, 218-228. 

Kohala, 42. 

Koko, 15, 52, 53, 75, 147- 

Kokoa, 195-199. 

Koloa, 187. 

Kona, no, 149. 

konane, 15, 16, 52, 54. 

Koolau, 54, 156, 203, 247, 259. 

Kou, 15-28, 52-54, loi, 132, 160, 

180, 222, 234-243. 
Ku, 9, II, 37, 71-73, 82-95. 
kuakuku, 68. 
Kualii, 132. 
Kuhooneenuu, 27. 
Kuikaa, 187. 
Kuilioloa, 85-89. 
Kukaepuaa, 275. 
Kukaeunahio, 135, i37- 
Kukalaniehu, 182. 
Kukaoo, 137. 



APPENDIX 



kukui, 66, 8i, 196. 

Kulaokahua, 160. 

Kuleonui, 19. 

Kuna, 90 

Kuokoa, 00. 

kupua, 29, 34, 52, 90-93, 159, 180, 

204, 205, 229. 
Kupulupulu, 98. 
Kuula, 118. 

Laahana, 65. 

Laka, 34. 

Lanai, 136. 

Lani, 119. 

Lanihuli, 122. 

Lauhuiki, 65. 

Laukaieie, 211. 

Laukona, 163. 

Lea, 99, 100, 233. 

Leahi, 112. 

leho, 149, 150. 

lehua, 35, 55, 166, 167, 228. 

lei, 35, 153- 

lele, 121. 

Lepeamoa, 204-208, 224-245. 

Lihue, 92-94. 

Liliha, 88. 

Liliuokalani, iii. 

Lohiau, 277. 

Lone, 4, 5, 9, 10, 37-39, 71-73, 94- 

Lonoaohi, 256. 

lonomakaihe, 121. 

Lonopuakau, 211. 

Lua, 9. 

lua, 121. 

luau, 251. 

Maaloa, 64. 

mahiole, 60. 

maika, 17. 

maile, 206. 

Mainele, 161-172. 

Makaha, 183. 

Makalei, 26. 

Makapuu, 140. 

makawalu, 258. 

Makiki, 16, 160, 166. 

Makuakaumana, 61. 

Malailua, 122. 

male, 60, 212, 221. 

malolo,_22i. 

mamaki, 64. 

Mamala, 52-54- 

Mamaloa, 75-80. 

mana, 27. 

Manoa, 19, 87, 127, 130-136, 158- 

172. 
Manualolo, 240. 



Maui, 13-27, 56, 69, 93, 107, iiJ?, 

125, 136, 138, 232-259. 
Mauilli, 189. 

Mauinui, 229, 237, 22,2>, 243. 
mauka, 70. 
Mauna Kaala, 178. 
menehune, 62, 90-93, 131, 132. 
Milu, 119. 
Moaauha, 240. 
Moanalua, 94, 95, 104, 136. 
moanene, 239. 
moi, 112. 
Mokapu, 71. 
Mokuhalii, 100. 
Molokai, 107, 114, 136, 149. 
Mololani, 71. 
moo, 34, 52, 104. 
Muleiulu, 23. 

Namaka, 1 21-124. 
Napihenui, ?>z. 
Naulu, 184. 
Newa, 19. 
Niihau, 151, 181. 
Niolapa, 105. 
niu, 67, 206. 

Nuuanu, 15-21, 30-40, 62-76, 88- 
108, 126, 132, 220. 

Oahu, 9, 15-29, 61, 75, 86-96, 113- 

134. 
ohia, 196, 238. 
Olopana, 247. 
Ouha, 15, 16, 52, 54. 
Oupe, 7. 

pahee, 221. 

pahoehoe, 272. 

Pakaalana, 105, 106, 153. 

Pakaka, 21-27, 30. 

Pakuanui, 121, 123. 

Palama, 204, 209, 227, 228. 

pali, 156. 

Panapololei, 76, 79. 

Papa, 2-13, 28-35, 75-78. 

pau, 31, 66. 

Pauoa, 90. 

Pawaa, 158, 165, 170, 172, 235. 

Pehu, 56, 57. 

Pele, 58, 66, 267-277. 

Pikoi, 157, 172. 

Po, 8, 119. 

Pohakuloa, 123. 

poi, 115, 175. 

Poki, 87, 88. 

Polihale, 83. 

poulu, 64. 

Puapualenalena, 108, 



APPENDIX 



Pueo, 129, 130. 
Puhuehu, 28. 
Puiwa, 20, 63. 
Puna, 55, 128, 170. 
Puukapu, 153. 
Puukume, 25. 
Puuhonua, 131 
Puuowaina, 18 
Puupueo, 131. 



133. 



tabu, 9i-iii» 13s. 154, 192, 208. 
tapa or kapa, 108, 156, 169. 
taro, 132, 196. 
ti, 60. 



Uhakohi, 255. 
uiu, 180, 181. 
Ulakoheo, 17. 
Ulakua, 16. 
ulua, 141. 
uluhe, 196. 
Ulukou, 166, 177. 



Umi, 148-156. 
unihipili, 216. 

Waaleala, 178. 
Wahiawa, 257. 
Waialua, 195, 197, 200. 
Waianae, 93, 180, 182, 203, 221, 

257, 258. 
Waihee, 125. 
Waikiki, 15, 21, 53-56, 127-135, 

142, 164, 166, 227. 
Wailua, 173, 204, 213. 
Wailuku, 242. 
Waimanu, 109. 

Waimea, 115, 117, 124, 153, 154. 
Waipio, 20, 23, 105, no, 153. 
Waiui, 211. 

wakea, i-ii, 28-35, 75-79- 
Waolani, 19, 107, 130. 
wauke, 63-65, 213, 214. 
Welaahilani, 73. 
wiliwili, 223. 
Wohi, 33. 



POLYNESIAN LANGUAGE 



**A few words should be added on the peculiar genius and 
structure of the Polynesian language in general and of the 
Hawaiian dialect in particular. 

It is the law of all Polynesian languages that every word 
and syllable must end in a vowel, so that no two consonants 
are ever heard without a vowel sound between them. 

Most of the radical words are dissyllables, and the accent 
is generally on the penult. The Polynesian ear is as nice in 
marking the slightest variations in vowel sound as it is dull 
in distinguishing consonants. 

The vocabulary of the Hawaiian is probably richer than 
that of most other Polynesian tongues. Its child-like and 
primitive character is shown by the absence of abstract words 
and general terms. 

As has been well observed by M. Gaussin, there are three 
classes of words, corresponding to as many dijfferent stages 
of language: first, those that express sensations; second, 
images; third, abstract ideas. 

Not only are names wanting for the more general abstrac- 
tions, such as space, nature, fate, etc., but there are very 
few generic terms. For example there is no generic term for 
animal, expressing the whole class of living creatures or for 
insects or for colors. At the same time it abounds in specific 
names and in nice distinctions. 

So in the Hawaiian everything that relates to their every- 
day life or to the natural objects with which they are con- 
versant is expressed with a vivacity, a minuteness and nicety 
of coloring which cannot be reproduced in a foreign tongue. 
Thus the Hawaiian was very rich in terms for every variety 
of cloud. It has names for every species of plant on the 
mountains or fish in the sea, and is peculiarly copious in terms 
relating to the ocean, the surf and waves. 

For whatever belonged to their religions, their handicrafts 
or their amusements, their vocabulary was most copious and 
minute. Almost every stick in a native house had its appro- 
priate name. Hence it abounds in synonyms which are such 
only in appearance, i.e., "to be broken'' as a stick is *haki,' 
as a string is *moku/ as a dish *naha,' as a wall *hina.' 

Besides the language of every-day life, there was a style 
appropriate to oratory and another to religion and poetry. 

The above-mentioned characteristics make it a pictorial 
and expressive language. ^ It still has the freshness of child- 
hood. Its words are pictures rather than colorless and 
abstract s)anbols of ideas, and are redolent of the mountain, 
the forest and the surf. 



POLYNESIAN LANGUAGE — aw/mMei 

However it has been and is successfully used to express the 
abstractions of mathematics, of English law, and of theology." 



''The Hawaiian is but a dialect of the great Polynesian 
language, which is spoken with extraordinary imiformity over 
all the numerous islands of the Pacific Ocean between New 
Zealand and Hawaii. Again, the Polynesian language is but 
one member of that wide-spread family of languages, known 
as the Malayo-Polynesian or Oceanic family, which extends 
from Madagascar to the Hawaiian Islands and from New 
Zealand to Formosa. The Hawaiian dialect is pecuHarly in- 
teresting to the philologist from its isolated position, being the 
most remote of the family from its primeval seat in South- 
eastern Asia, and leading the van mth the Malagasy in the rear. 
We believe the Hawaiian to be the most copious and expressive, 
as well as the richest in native traditional history and poetry. 
Dr. Reinhold Forster, the celebrated naturalist of Captain 
Cook's second voyage, drew up a table containing 47 words 
taken from 11 Oceanic dialects and the corresponding terms 
in Malay, Mexican, Peruvian and Chilian. From this table 
he inferred that the Polynesian languages afford many analo- 
gies with the Malay while they present no point of contact 
with the American. 

Baron William von Himaboldt, the distinguished statesman 
and scholar, showed that the Tagala, the leading language of 
the Philippine Islands, is by far the richest and most perfect 
of these languages. *It possesses,' he says, *all the forms 
collectively of which particular ones are found singly in other 
dialects; and it has preserved them all with very trifling ex- 
ceptions unbroken and in entire harmony and symmetry.' 

The languages of the Oceanic region have been divided into 
six great groups; ix., the Polynesian; the Micronesian; the 
Melanesian or Papuan; the Australian; the Malaysian; 
the Malagasy. Many examples might be given if they were 
needed to illustrate the connection of these languages. The 
Polynesian is an ancient and primitive member of the Malay 
family. The New Zealand dialect is the most primitive and 
entire in its forms. The Hawaiians, Marquesans and Tahit- 
ians form a closely related group by themselves. For ex- 
ample, the Marquesan converts are using Hawaiian books and 
the people of the Austral Islands read the Tahitian Bible." 

The above w^as written by W. D. Alexander in Honolulu in 
1865, author of the "History of the Hawaiian Islands" as 
preface to Andrew's Dictionary. 



PRESS NOTICES HAWAIIAN LEGENDS 




LEGENDS OF OLD HONOLULU. Published July, 1915. 

LEGENDS OF GHOSTS AND GHOST-GODS. Jan., 1916. 

LEGENDS OF HAWAHAN VOLCANOES. Oct., 1916. 

By William Drake Westervelt. 

Press of Geo. H. Ellis Co., Boston. 
i2mo, $1.50, net; small, $1.00, net. 

In the old days of our grandfathers, Oregon and Hawaii 
enjoyed quite a brisk trade. Friendships were made that 
lasted. Along this line of thought here is a book that will 
be welcomed gladly by Oregon readers. It is a collection 
of tales on Hawaiian Mythology skilfully edited by W. D. 
Westervelt of Honolulu and bound at the press of Geo. H. 
Ellis Co., Boston.— r/fe Oregonian, Portland, Ore., Aug., 1916. 



Press Notices {continued). 

In bringing together this collection Mr. Westervelt has done 
a favor to the residents of Hawaii and those visitors to its 
shores who take an interest in its original inhabitants. — The 
Bee, Omaha y Neh., June, igi6. 

The Polynesian type is one of the most attractive that 
mankind has ever developed and the Hawaiian is typically 
Polynesian. ^ The migration of the Polynesian race over the 
great ocean is one of the marvelous achievements of man, and 
the legends, incidentally, when not intentionally, throw much 
light on this movement. This volume of *^ Ghosts and Ghost- 
gods " is the second of a series of six which the author plans. 
Nowhere else in culture is legendary lore more ample or 
rich; nowhere else does human character present stranger con- 
tradictions; nowhere else does belief more nearly approach the 
wild-fantastic. No book in Mr. Westervelt^s series will more 
strikingly display these qualities than this one on ghosts and 
ghost-gods. — Sunday State Journal, Wis., June, igi6. 

Unquestionably the most complete and entertaining dis- 
closure of the rich treasure-store of mid-Pacific myth with 
which the English-speaking world has yet been favored. 
When the series is finished, there will have been little imsaid 
on a subject intensely attractive to the mythologist, the 
student of comparative religion and the ethnologist. — 
Deseret Evening News, Salt Lake City, Utah, June, igi6, 

A student of mythology will find many links between these 
legends and those of far-distant lands. The book will have 
vital interest for all lovers of folk-lore who will find much 
information in these tales of ancient tiihes.— Book News, 
Philadelphia, Dec., IQIS- 

While the book will be of especial interest to students of 
ethnology and to those who have visited Honolulu, the 
romantic charm which pervades the Pacific Archipelago gives 
the history universal attraction to the reading pubUc. — Globe, 
Boston, Mass., Oct. 25, igij* 

A valuable addition to the world's collection of folk-lore 
is made by Mr. W. D. Westervelt in "Legends of Old Hono- 
lulu." — New York Times, Jan. 16, igi6. 

Lovers of legendary Folk-lore may feast upon this collec- 
tion of traditional tales of the Hawaiian people and their 
origin as first told by the old Hawaiian and sometimes 
touched up by the Hawaiian story-teller. Mr. Westervelt, a 
resident of Honolulu, was president of the Hawaiian Historical 
Society for some time. — Boston Transcript, Aug. 11, 1915. 



Press Notices {continued). 

All these legends have their own particular appeal and the 
book may be classed among the rare offerings of the year. — 
Biifalo Courier y Aug. zg^ iQij- 

He writes as one well versed in his subject and some of the 
legends which he presents are of great beauty and show a fine 
and dehcate imagination in their authors. — London Times ^ 
Sept. 23, 1915. 

Mr. Westervelt is a historian of recognized standing and 
has given much time to the study of the Hawaiian Folk-Lore. 
— The Friend, Sept., igis. 

His contribution to folk-lore is as important and valuable 
as his books are attractive and interesting to read. — San 
FratwiscOy Cat., Jan, 8, igi6. 

These legends show no lack of imagination on the part 
of the Hawaiian. They are simple, filled with superstition 
and largely concerned with wonderful chiefs and animals 
with extraordinary powers. — Christian Science Monitor, Aug., 
1915- 

Mr. Westervelt has made a noteworthy contribution to 
legendary literature. — Bellman, Minn., Sept., igij. 

Some entertaining stories are told by Mr. W. D. Westervelt 
in his collection of "Legends of Old Honolulu." — Spectator, 
London, Oct., 1915. 

These legends will prove of imusual interest to the general 
reader and especially to the scholar, thinker and poet. They 
describe vividly and strongly the triumphs and wanderings 
of the people of Hawaii. — Overland Monthly, San Francisco, 
Oct., igij. 

Mr. Westervelt has long been an active observer of the 
aboriginal condition of Hawaiian life and the stories he has 
discovered have added not a little to our knowledge of the 
Pol3niesian race as it was before the dawn of history. — Scots- 
man, Sept., igij. 

These interesting legends, some of which are very old, fur- 
nish almost a history of the Hawaiian thought. — Int, Review 
of Missions, Edinburgh, igi§. 

Those who are interested in the distant possessions of the 
U.S. will welcome this volume of "Legends of Old Honolulu" 
by W. D. Westervelt. They depict the typical native life 
of Hawaii. Other volumes are in press. — So. Atlantic 
Quarterly, Durham, N.C., Jan., igi6. 



Press Notices {continued). 

The Hawaiian Legends have a quality of their own. The 
book is pleasing in design with many illustrations. — Dial, 
Chicago, Dec. i, igi5^ 

Thanks to Mr. Westervelt the reading public has learned 
more of the natives of Hawaii and Aeir folk-lore. The 
book is handsomely designed and illustrated.~P^*W^6wrg^ 
Chronicle, igiS- 

The stories tell of the struggles, triimiphs and wanderings 
of the people and while they are full of interest as merely 
stories, they have a special value to all who are concerned 
with the study of comparative folk-lore. — Bookseller, London, 
Aug. 10, igiS- 

All the legends are fresh and charming and help to give 
glimpses into the workings of the thought and imagination 
of the simple dwellers in the Isles of the South Seas. Mr. 
Westervelt is to be congratulated on his new contribution 
to our better knowledge of the fast-dwindling people whom 
he knows and loves so well. — Herald, Glasgow, Sept. 23, igiS* 

An entertaining dip into Hawaiian mythology is reserved 
for readers of "Legends of Gods and Ghosts," whose author 
is W. D. Westervelt. The tales are collected from native 
tongues and put into English with no apparent sacrifice of 
their interest and charm. The Hawaiians have developed 
some beautiful nature-myths, which are well worth preserva- 
tion as companion pieces with the better known fairy stories 
that come to us from Europe and Asia. Tales of fisher 
folks, of mountain habitants, of magic fishhooks and of 
creatures who could take on the form of man or of sea monster 
at wUl — such are the legends handed down from generation 
to generation among these mid-Pacific people. They are 
worth reading. — Boston: The George H. Ellis Co. Press. — 
Cleveland Plain Dealer, Mar. 25, 1916. 

Gods and Goddesses tower in the place allotted to fairies 
in Europe and to genii in Asia and the book is of the greatest 
interest to the student of stories. — Bookseller, London, Aug. 10, 
1915. 

Just as their music is weirdly sweet so the legends of the 
Hawaiians have a fascinating beauty about them. Not only to 
the anthropologist but to the general reader all the myths have 
their appeal. — Springfield Republican, 1916. 

Mr. Westervelt includes among his legends "Ghosts and 
Ghost-gods" something about homeless and desolate ghosts, 
ancestor ghosts, and dragon ghost-gods. He has illustrated 



Press Notices {continued). 

with twelve pictures of Hawaiian scenery and fish plates in 
color. ... So out of this rich material Mr. Westervelt makes 
an interesting book. Most persons never outgrow fairy 
tales and these have a novelty and glamour that we associate 
with far-off tropical Polynesia. — Transcript, Boston, igi6. 

The note of the story does not often rise above the carnal 
but now and then a higher note is struck of friendship, 
marital love and loyalty, courage for high ends. As a con- 
tribution to aboriginal folk-lore Mr. Westervelt's book takes 
a distinct place. — Herald, Boston, Mass., Jan. 2g, igi6. 

Greek Mythology, red Indian Folk-lore and Andersen^s 
Fairy Tales are made of one stuff and kin to them all are 
these South Sea Island Stories told by Mr. W. D. Westervelt. — 
New York Sun, Jan. 23, igi6. 

These legends reveal an extraordinary understanding of 
Nature's ways and moods and unveil early history with a 
mythological setting. — San Francisco, Feb., igi6. 



The author purposes to bring out during 191 7: 

LIFE OF KAMEHAMEHA. 
LEGENDS OF MAUI. 
HISTORICAL LEGENDS. 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



029 714 062 



